Muhammad looked calm and stoic, but was twitching and blinking as the injections began, defiant to the end, refusing to utter any final words. Victims’ families sat behind glass while watching the execution, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses.“He died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims,” said Prince William County prosecutor Paul Ebert, who witnessed Muhammad die by injection at 9:11 p.m. (0211 GMT) at Greensville Correctional Center, south of Richmond. Muhammad, dressed in a blue shirt, jeans and flip-flops, had no final statement.
Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during the three-week spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The shootings terrorized the region and captivated the nation, as victim after victim was shot down while doing everyday chores: going shopping, pumping gas, mowing the lawn. One child was shot while walking into his middle school.
People stayed indoors. Those who did go outside weaved as they walked or bobbed their heads to make themselves a less easy target.
The campaign of terror ended on Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, as they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted for a shooter to perch in its trunk without being detected. Malvo is serving a life prison term in Virginia.
