DC Sniper

Tonight the DC Sniper was put to death by lethal injection (which, if you ask me, is too good for him). I guess I just wanted to write something because it was such a big deal to me since I was right there during those weeks of terror. It is hard to put into words how I felt while the DC Sniper thing was going on. Sometimes we tried to joke about it, sometimes we expressed our fear.

"Terror" really is the only way to describe those weeks. Everyone was scared just to walk outside. There were people taking their kids out of school and the ones that were there were on lock-down. I was a missionary at the time and we were put on lock-down every time we heard of a new shooting. I was on exchanges when the first one happened and had to spend the day at other people's apartment without my own things.

I remember going running on p-day with another missionary and at this time the reports were that the people doing the shooting were driving a white van. We would freak out a little every time a white van drove past us. One van drove past and the driver did something to make a gun shot noise to scare us. It totally worked and wasn't a funny joke.

The thing that was scary was that everything was so random. The last killing was right by the apartment complex I was at when the first one happened. Others happened all over the DC area, in both Maryland and Virginia.

Lori, one of the people that was killed, was at the nearest gas station to the temple. She was LDS and helped us out with an investigator one day. I don't remember a lot about her, just that she was helpful. She drove us from our area to the visitors' center so the investigator could get a tour. When she was killed, two sister missionaries were in the grocery store parking lot next door and were the first ones to run to her. When they got to the visitors' center, Sister J (to not disclose the true identity) told me that she watched the life drain out of the woman.

Another thing I remember was when the freeway was shut down from the beltway to Germantown because they were looking for the shooter. It turns out (from what I remember) that the the snipers were on the freeway but the police were looking for the white van still.

Anyway, lethal injection was too easy in my opinion. I know that I'm stepping down a spiritual law when I want an eye for an eye... but I'll advance in other ways.