Charles Moose, the face of the DC sniper investigation, dies at 68

By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN

Charles Moose, who headed Montgomery County Police Department when authorities arrested DC snipers, has died, according to a department Facebook post.

The 68-year-old inherited Thanksgiving, the ministry said, citing his wife.

“He was a great leader and led our department through the DC sniper investigation, one of the toughest rampages in our country’s history. We extend our condolences to his wife Sandy and all of his family and friends, ”Chief Marcus Jones said in a statement.

Moose, who grew up in North Carolina and was born in New York, headed the department from 1999 to 2003.

The Montgomery County Attorney’s Office, John McCarthy, also expressed its condolences to Moose’s family and praised the “former boss’s service during some of our darkest days. We are forever grateful to him for his guidance during the 2002 sniper crisis, ”said a tweet.

Moose died “while watching football and sitting in his chair,” Sandy Moose said in a Facebook post published by CNN subsidiary WJLA.

“He called my name and I came running, but it was too late. His body was shut down, ”wrote his wife. “It seems so banal to give the first clue in this way. Right now I can’t think much about needing a plan to celebrate this man: my best friend since 1982. He has meant so much to so many people, I’m at a loss … Godspeed Charles. “

Murders rattled the Beltway

October 2002 was a month of terror for the Beltway when John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo went on a rampage, indiscriminately targeting people who went about their daily lives.

Her first victim was a 55-year-old boy on October 2, 2002 in a supermarket parking lot in Wheaton, Maryland. By the end of that week, they had killed a 39-year-old landscaper while he was mowing a lawn in Rockville; a part-time taxi driver pumping gasoline in Aspen Hill; a 34-year-old woman in a Silver Spring post office; a 25-year-old woman at a gas station in Kensington; and a 72-year-old man walking down Georgia Avenue in Washington, DC.

When arrested, Malvo and Muhammad had killed 10 people and injured three others in sniper-style attacks in and around the country’s capital. Authorities later traced her crime spree several months later, linking it to a series of robberies, shootings, and murders in the southwest and southeast of the United States.

The killers mocked the investigators, left tarot cards, a handwritten note and even called the police once.

The Montgomery County Police Department led the investigation, which included numerous state and state agencies, and Moose was often the public face of the investigation and held regular press conferences. At a press conference hours before Muhammad and Malvo were arrested, Moose is known to have relayed a message to the murderers.

“They asked us to say – quote – ‘We caught the sniper like a duck in a noose’ – end quote,” he said. “We understand that it is important for you to hear us say. However, we want you to know how difficult it was to understand what you want because you chose to only use notes, indirect messages and calls to other jurisdictions. “

The manhunt ended in the early hours of October 24, 2002 after a Pennsylvania driver spotted the snipers’ blue Chevrolet Caprice at a rest stop in Frederick County, Maryland. Maryland State Troopers quietly walked into the area blocking the entrance and exit to the rest area so a SWAT team could arrest the couple who were sleeping in the limo.

The men have been tried in multiple states and convicted of capital murder and other crimes. Malvo has been sentenced to several life sentences and remains in the Red Onion State Prison in Wise County, Virginia, where he married last year. In 2009, Mohammed was executed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Virginia.

A decorated career

Moose was sworn in as the 15th Montgomery County Police Chief on August 2, 1999. The police were 1,000 men strong at the time. His wife presented him with his badge.

“I will do my best to ensure that this department does more than just fight crime,” he said in a press release. “I expect our officials to do much more to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods.”

He had retired the previous month as chief of the Portland Police Bureau in Oregon, where he served about a quarter of a century after working his way up from patrolman. He also taught criminal justice at Portland State University, where he earned a doctorate in urban / criminology and served in the Oregon Air National Guard.

“Moose is credited with driving community police initiatives and technology, implementing guidelines to reduce the use of deadly force, and guidelines and programs to assist officials and their families,” said a 1999 Montgomery County police press release. “Beginning That year, Moose was instrumental in bringing Oregon police chiefs and union officials together to sign a resolution against racial profiling. According to US Justice Department officials, the cooperative action was a first in the country. “

In 1998, then-US Attorney General Janet Reno Moose presented the William French Smith Award for Outstanding Contribution to Cooperative Law Enforcement, recognizing his “dynamic leadership in promoting the effectiveness and efficiency of law enforcement through cooperative policing and his efforts to create a real” spirit the partnership between law enforcement agencies to bridge the gap between those agencies and the communities they serve, ”the Justice Department said.

He quit his Montgomery County post in 2002, allegedly after an argument over his desire to write a book about the DC sniper investigations. The following year he published “Three Weeks in October”.

In 2006, he joined a class of 40 recruits who were inducted into the Honolulu Police Department, according to the now defunct Star-Bulletin. He started working as a patrol officer – something he hadn’t done since serving sergeant in Portland in 1980 – after graduating from Honolulu Police College, the newspaper reported.

The 26-year-old recruit Kawika Hosea spoke highly of Moose and told the star bulletin Moose “had a lot of insights and gave many words of encouragement in the Down moments.”

It’s not clear when he left the Honolulu troop, but a community news agency for Montgomery County, Maryland reported in 2010 that he no longer worked there.

Moose retired to the Tampa Bay, Florida area, according to WJLA.

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Charles Moose, the face of the DC sniper investigation, dies at 68