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"The security guard said that a blue vehicle with New Jersey tags was on the Washington Street side of the building and that two black males were possibly asleep inside," said Lt. John Corrigan of the Petersburg Bureau of Police. "The car was a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice."
The same car, he said, in which Muhammad and Malvo were sleeping when they were arrested at a Maryland rest stop last week as the main suspects in 13 sniper shootings following a three-week reign of terror in Maryland, Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia.
According to the report, when the officers pulled up along the side of the car, one noted that the back seat was full of clothing and that one of the men didn't appear to be older than 16 or 17. The older of the men told officers that his name was John Allen Muhammad, Corrigan said, and that his date of birth was Dec. 31, 1960.
Muhammad told the officers that the young man traveling with him, now believed to be Malvo, was his nephew. Police did not take down the name of the younger passenger.
"Mr. Muhammad said that he had traveled to Louisiana to visit family and that he had stopped in Petersburg because he was tired and needed to rest," Corrigan said. "The two were very cooperative and showed no signs of suspicious activity."
The officers ran the man's information and the car through local, state and national criminal databases but the check turned up nothing. Muhammad was told that he was trespassing at the hotel and that he had to leave.
Corrigan said the officers did not think about the encounter again until after Muhammad was arrested in connection with the sniper shootings.
"(Petersburg police) called the hotline immediately and then the FBI called (Petersburg PD) and asked for a copy of the written report," Corrigan said. "They were apparently here weeks before the sniper attacks began."
Lawrence Barry, Chief Division Counsel with the Richmond Field Office of the FBI, declined to comment on the Petersburg connection to the suspects, citing the ongoing investigation.
But a local police officer said on the condition of anonymity that Muhammad and Malvo's presence in Petersburg could help to piece together a time line of events that tie together shooting deaths across the East Coast.
"This could help to tell them if and when they scoped out the area and if they had planned an escape route along (Interstate) 85," the police source said.
The men's presence in Petersburg in September seems to make sense, the officer said, if the men were traveling from New Jersey to somewhere down south.
The shooting death of a clerk at a Montgomery, Ala. liquor store took place two days after officers encountered Muhammad and Malvo in Petersburg. The first of the sniper shootings in Maryland took place Oct. 2, just two weeks later. That spree would kill 10 and critically injure three.
Mohimder Singh, owner of the Petersburg Ramada, said he was shocked to learn the two men trespassing on his property that night would turn out to be the sniper suspects.
"I remember reading the reports of two guys and not thinking much about it at the time," Singh said. "It is very shocking and thank God that my security did a good job and called the police and did everything proper."
Takia Clay often visits with some of her VSU classmates at the Ramada and said that learning of Muhammad's brief presence there was frightening.
"It makes you realize that it could have easily have happened here, too. People thought they were safe this far away from Maryland but maybe we weren't," Clay said. "Maybe he was on his way back here."
Colonial Heights resident Rebecca Olson also was disturbed.
She has been keeping up with the news about Muhammad and Malvo, and wasn't surprised to learn that the two are suspects in homicides in Washington state and Louisiana.
Corrigan said local authorities do not suspect Muhammad or Malvo in any unsolved crimes in the area.
Still, as the number of murders the two are suspected of having committed across the country continues to grow, Olson said, it makes her even more grateful that they were caught.
"As bad as it is, it could have been much worse. That is the reality of it," Olson said. "You always say never in my backyard and then there they are, sleeping in a car just a few miles up the road and that is the scary part."
* Jennifer Francis may be reached at 732-3456, ext. 255.
