Born John Allen Williams on Dec. 31, 1960 (he changed his surname in October 2001), Muhammad is a U.S. Army veteran of the Gulf War, who became a  member of Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. He was part of the security group at Farrakhan’s October 1995 Million Man March in Washington, DC.

In October 2002, Muhammad was the driver of a blue Chevrolet Caprice that was a rolling sniper’s nest from which he and his companion, 17-year old Lee Boyd Malvo (a.k.a. John Lee Malvo), terrorized DC-area residents. While Muhammad drove the car, Malvo hid in the trunk and, on command, shot at innocent Americans who were gassing their cars, buying equipment for their homes, or otherwise going about their daily activities.

In November 2003 – a year after he had led 14 ambush assaults that killed ten victims in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia – the man known as the Washington Beltway sniper was convicted of murder by a Virginia jury. Four months later, the judge sentenced him to death.  Muhammad is also likely to be tried for additional murders in Alabama and Louisiana.

An illegal alien from Jamaica, the teenage sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was often introduced as Muhammad’s son or stepson as the two roamed the nation. Malvo was found guilty of murder by another Virginia jury and, in March 2004 (at age 19), was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. The National Enquirer, a tabloid newspaper frequently quoted by the New York Times in the aftermath of the shooting spree, reported in November 2002 that Muhammad and Malvo were homosexual lovers.

He was executed on November 10, 2009 in the Greensville Correctional Center in Virginia.