John Allen Muhammad, 48, the man who played God with sniper fire seven years ago, ending 10 lives in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., was quietly executed by injection last night, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He had been sentenced to die for the Oct. 9, 2002, slaying of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, a civil engineer shot in the head at a gas station where he had stopped on his way home from work. Given the chance to make a last statement, Muhammad stared stoically at the ceiling and did not move a muscle.
About 20 family members of victims watched the execution; some had to be turned away for lack of space. Ola Martin, the sister of James Martin, who was slain Oct. 2, 2002, in Wheaton, Md. “He just went to sleep,” she said. “It was a lot easier than his victims had it.” Marion Lewis, of Mountain Home, Idaho, the father of Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, who was one of five people murdered on Oct. 3, 2002, said, “It’s done and over. I’ve waited six years longer than I should have to wait for this man to die. [] This whole thing didn’t make up for it, but the whole thing rests a little easier.”