D.C. sniper to narrate new docuseries on shootings
Convicted killer Lee Boyd Malvo opens up at length about his 2002 reign of terror and how he and his partner John Allen Muhammad were able to evade law enforcement
In a move that audiences may find stunning at first, a new documentary series examining the Washington, D.C.-area sniper murders will be narrated by the convicted DC sniper himself.
In Vice’s upcoming eight-part docuseries I, Sniper convicted killer Lee Boyd Malvo opens up at length about his 2002 reign of terror and how he and his partner John Allen Muhammad were able to evade law enforcement as they ran amock in the Washington, D.C., area, ultimately killing 10 people.
The documentarians behind the project said they interviewed Malvo over the course of several years. But in order to stay within the prison rules all the interviews were conducted in 15-minute blocks.
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The Daily Beast reports that the series, which premieres on May 10, “is most notable for putting its prime emphasis on the pair’s innocent victims, and the countless friends, family members and loved ones left to cope with unthinkable tragedy. To its admirable credit, it’s a true-crime affair that seeks to understand its “monsters” while simultaneously recognizing—and highlighting—the fact that such comprehension doesn’t necessitate empathy, especially when the atrocities in question are as inexcusably heinous as these.”
Muhammad was put to death in 2009 while Malvo continues to serve several life sentences without the possibility of parole. But director Ursula Macfarlane‘s storytelling isn’t affected at all by Muhammad’s passing thanks to those chilling and seemingly candid phone conversations with Malvo from his permanent residence at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison.
It’s worth noting that he was only 17 years old and had endured what he characterizes as a troubled childhood in Jamaica before he crossed paths with Muhammad. Muhammad would become first his mentor and then stand beside him as a co-conspirator.
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The Gulf War veteran with an immense chip on his shoulder reportedly stepped up as a father figure for the minor. Malvo had been abandoned by his own biological father and allegedly abused by his mother before being put in a position where he had to fend for himself.
Instead of teaching Malvo how to be a man, Muhammad fed him the hatred he had towards the military, white people, and the American government as a whole. But what allegedly pushed Muhammad over the deep end was his growing disdain for his ex-wife Mildred, who was able to take his children away from him after he’d taken them without her parental consent.
This last bit of perceived betrayal sent the vet into a homicidal rage that snowballed into, “the cold-blooded murder of Keenya Cook, the niece of Mildred’s friend in Tacoma, Washington, followed by violent robberies, shootings and slayings in Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia.”
These violent attacks would later been seen as test runs for the three work shooting spree that took place all over the D.C area during October of 2002. And although the mastermind of this plan was said to have a vendetta against white people, his victims were from all walks of life: white, Black, young and old, with targets who were considered well-off along with those who were clearly working-class.
“There’s just no excuse for their behavior. None whatsoever,” notes Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose.
To Moose’s point, in addition to hearing from one of the killers himself, filmmakers were also intentional about features interviews with relatives of the snipers and their victims, as well as the law enforcement officers who worked to track them down.
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