Sniper Victim Tells Of Fateful Night He Ran Out of Gas
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ROCKVILLE, Md. – When he heard the loud blast, Jeffrey Hopper ducked, thinking the noise and shock wave came from an exploding car nearby in the Ponderosa restaurant parking lot. Then he realized he was clutching his abdomen.
“I’ve been shot. Oh my God, I’ve been shot,'” Mr. Hopper testified yesterday in the murder trial of sniper John Allen Muhammad, recalling the moment he became the 12th victim in a three-week string of shootings. “It was hard to believe. It was the worst fear came true.”
Mr. Hopper and his wife, Stephanie, were returning from Philadelphia to their home in Florida on October 19, 2002. They had stretched their tank of gas to get beyond the Washington region because of the sniper shootings that had occurred there. They finally felt safe to stop for gas and eat in Ashland, Va., just north of Richmond.
Mr. Hopper suffered massive internal wounds from the .223-caliber bullet, losing most of his stomach and parts of other organs. He still has bullet fragments inside to give him a “glowing X-ray,” he told jurors.
Muhammad, who is acting as his own attorney, did not question Mr. Hopper.
Sheriff’s officers described finding a note at the scene that demanded $10 million to end the shootings. It ended with the chilling line: “Your children are not safe anywhere at anytime.”
Prosecutors have now detailed 12 of the 13 sniper shootings in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., during a three-week period in October 2002. Ten people died, three were wounded.
