Details on 2001 DC Sniper - Case Study Example

2001 D.C. Sniper Case Study Affiliation: Serial killing is not a new thing in the American society. Numerous people have fell victims of serial killers from time to time, with the state and federal governments intensifying their efforts to curb this criminal act. Diverse and dynamic undertakings have been pursued in this line, with the social, economic, legal and political systems been mobilized towards curbing serial killing acts. One of the most shocking acts of serial killing is the 2001 D.C. Sniper Case. Up to ten victims succumbed to the sniper shootings, with several others being injured in the process. John Allen Muhammad was the man behind the sniper attacks, carrying out the shootings from his modified vehicle. Muhammad had an accomplice by the name Lee Boyd Malvo (Mehrotra, 2006). Incidents and Locations A number of preliminary shootings had taken place before the killer moved to Washington area. Several people were killed and several injured, surviving bullet wounds after being shot from a distance. A number of sniper attacks took place in Washington area, with some victims surviving while others died. These attacks followed the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York. On the second day of October, 2002, a gunshot was fired into a craft store that was owned by a man called Michael at around 5:20 pm. In this incident, fortunately, no one was injured in the incident. There had been previous attacks in Alabama, Los Angeles, Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C, but this incident was not quickly connected to them (Turvey, 2011). The Aspen Hill incident marked the beginning of a trail of incidents in the Washington D.C area. On the same day that the Aspen Hill incident occurred, James Martin was shot dead at around 6:30 pm. Martin was shot at a grocery store’s parking lot in Wheaton. James Buchanan became a victim of the shooter on the 3rd of October, 2002. The incident took place at Rockville Pike, when the victim was mowing grass. On the same day, Premkumar Walekar succumbed to gunshot wounds in Aspen Hill when he was refueling his car. The incident took place at around 8:12 am. The 3rd of October, 2002 also saw the death and injury of several people at different times of the day. Sarah Ramos died at 8: 37 am after she was shot in Rossmoor Boulevard, seated on a sidewalk bench reading a book. At 9:58 am, Lori Ann was killed at a gas station in Kensington, Maryland. This marked the end of the morning trail of killings, but the day was yet to realize more killings later. Pascal Charlot was shot later that day in Georgia Avenue at around 9:15 pm. He barely survived for an hour after being shot, succumbing to the gunshot. All these victims were shot from a distance, and hardly survived a single bullet in each count of attack (Mehrotra, 2006). A number of other attacks that were carried out in Alabama, Los Angeles, Maryland, and Virginia were also linked to Muhammad and his accomplice. Underlying Hazards From the D.C sniper incident, a number of hazards can be identified. To start with, the public was susceptible to death risks following the indiscriminate shooting of innocent civilians around Washington D.C. Every person was at risk since the shooters, Muhammad and Lee Boyd, engaged in a series of attacks, without the motive of the killings being known. This was a life threatening incident, and every person had equal chance to succumb to the shootings. Health hazards were also evident, during the time these killings were taking place, and even after following numerous cases of injured persons across the affected areas. The third identifiable source of hazard was security based. Security forces engaged in series of searches for the perpetrators of the crime, but hardly succeeded. The two killers were highly organized and employed mechanisms that made it hard for police to catch up with them. Muhammad used an improvised car, allowing him to shoot and kill people from his car. Having an accomplice further made it worse, threatening the security of both civilians and the security forces. Insecurity that resulted in that case posed danger to loss of life and property. The D.C incident also threatened social cohesion in the United States. During the rising cases of shootings around Washington D.C, parents rushed to pick their children from schools (Bullock, Haddow & Coppola, 2012). Since numerous people had been shot dead and other injured, the media reports on the murders and injuries further exacerbated social concerns. A notion of mistrust was being realized as it was hard to establish who specifically was behind the killings. The social cohesion of the American society that had been built for decades of years was being shaken. The situation was made worse by the fact that the D.C sniper case occurred several months after the terrorist attack in New York. Impacts Loss of life Up to ten deaths were accounted for and linked to the D.C sniper case. Every dead body had succumbed to bullet wounds. Many of the shot people died immediately or shortly after being shot. The case left behind a trail of devastation to families that mourned their dead following the shootings and attacks that Muhammad and his accomplice had launched against the American population. Following the trail of attacks against civilians, many lives were lost. Casualties The attacks by Muhammad and Lee Boyd left dozens of people injured. A number of people survived the attacks, nursing gunshot wounds in the process. In other words, there were those who were shot but did not die, while others succumbed to the gunshots as mentioned above. The gunshot wounds were not the only impact of the attacks. Other health complications emerged following the attacks, with a number of reported cases showing that some people developed infections, while others suffered emotional and psychological distress. As a result, casualties increased with every account of attack. Property damage and loss Damage and loss of property was also evident. For instance, the craft shop that Michael owned was damaged at the time when a gunshot was fired into the store. Although no one was injured, property was damaged in the store. Muhammad also perpetrated rampages that resulted in people losing their belonging as they fled for safety. Several vehicles that belonged to those who were shot dead were damaged in the process. The gas station where Premkumar Walekar was shot also incurred losses since he could not pay for the gasoline. He died immediately after being shot. Rush for safety after a shooting occurred causes many to lose their luggage. Social and economic losses The sniper attacks resulted in social and economic distress across the locales they happened. Many people living in Washington and all the affected locations lived in fear of attack. This resulted in social worries among the people. On the same note, the shootings caused economic losses to the people. Casualties had to account for hospital bills that would not have been accounted for in absence of the attacks. Businesses were also ruined, with decreasing sales being realized in retail stores and restaurants. People remained confined in their houses for fear of attack, almost bringing the economy at individual, regional and national level to a standstill. Response Measures and Recovery Federal rate of change was critical to account for, given that change in crime aspects should be accounted for by relevant mechanisms enforced by the state and federal governments. Deceleration in both federal and emergency pursuits could not hold as an option. If anything, it was critical to heighten response and recovery pursuits prior and most importantly after the sniper attacks. Emergencies were dealt with in due time, a scenario that depicted medical readiness of every personnel involved in the caregiving of those injured. Healthcare financing is an expensive undertaking, and this case was not different amid the sniper attacks that Muhammad and his accomplice carried out. A need to set aside more funds for emergency responses emerged as efforts to save lives of the injured people exacerbated. Individual and insurance healthcare financing proved to be an effective way of funding healthcare, a scenario that laid the basis for the improvement of healthcare financing. Over and above this, preparedness of emergency responders was critical to account for at the time. Today, emergency response teams have realized immense reforms; with the 2001 terrorist attack and 2002 sniper case serving as a wakeup call in that line. Many of the people that became victims of the sniper attacks were running their daily errands. They had no expectations of such attacks, meaning that they had no predetermined cautions about the shootings. Although there had been a number of shootings in the earlier listed locales, cautions of subsequent attacks remained unissued. Many of the victims were, therefore, caught unaware. In other words, victims to any given crime are less likely to be prepared for it, unless notices on attacks are issued beforehand. Changes after the Event After the sniper event, mitigation measures were pursued across community, state and federal levels (Bullock, Haddow & Coppola, 2012). The entire society was mobilized against organized crime, especially serial killing. Measures and policies pursued covered improved mechanisms to apprehend criminal that engaged in capital offences among other crimes. Polices were also pursued to redesign punishment of those found guilty of capital among other offences. Use of security guards in buildings was intensified after the event took place, with campaign being run to mobilize people on being more vigilant in the daily pursuits. Structural reforms in the crime unit that deals with capital offences were also pursued, specifically, training was intensified and strategies were laid down to account for similar events in future. Death trails directed towards innocent civilians proved to be challenge right after the sniper event occurred, but later treatment of crime by state and federal governments proved fruitful. Security measures were imposed and patrol police enhanced their duties. Civilian-police ratio was also looked into, to allow adequate service by the security forces to the people in United States. Intensive investigations and hunt for serial killers among other criminal perpetrators were heightened, the aim being to alleviate future occurrences of similar events. Legislation and regulation measures also took center stage among the changes that occurred in Washington and the United States at large following the sniper killings (Lee & Tirnady, 2003). The legal and regulatory systems in the United States embarked on determining harsh punishments for offenders, especially in relation to cases that violated fundamental human rights and freedoms. The D.C sniper attacks saw the reconsideration of execution of prisoners on death row. Proponents of this punishment argued the law ought not to be lenient with persons who did not value the fundamentalism of American lives. Although prisoners on death row had not been executed for quite some time, the sniper attacks made it necessary to revisit the issue. Muhammad arrested and charged, with the prosecutor advocating for death penalty on Muhammad. By the close of the case in the year 2004, Muhammad was found guilty of murder, and was executed in the year 2009 (Bullock, Haddow & Coppola, 2012). References Bullock, J., Haddow, G. & Coppola, D. (2012). Introduction to Homeland Security: Principles of All-Hazards Risk Management. Washington: Elsevier. Lee, H. & Tirnady, F. (2003). Blood Evidence: How DNA Is Revolutionizing the Way We Solve Crimes. New York: Basic Books. Mehrotra, S. (2006). Intelligence and Security Informatics: IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics, ISI 2006, San Diego, CA, USA, May 23-24, 2006: Proceedings. New York: Springer. Turvey, B. (2011). Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis. New York: Academic Press. Read More