Rumors, reward money and still no arrest in shootings

Editor’s note: The shootings at the National Museum of the Marine Corps and other military facilities in the region brought national media attention to the Potomac Communities in 2010.

Triangle, Va. –– It was quiet at the National Museum of the Marine Corps on the October day when someone shot at the building, damaging the custom-made glass that adorns its majestic facade.

Following the Oct. 16 shooting at the museum in Triangle, police found several bullet holes in the glass, supposedly put there by someone who federal investigators maintain has a grudge against the military, someone who could have suffered a significant loss or financial hardship.

Over the course of the next month, the museum would be targeted a second time. The Pentagon, a Marine recruiting center in Chantilly and a U.S. Coast Guard recruiting center outside Potomac Mills mall were also targets of the suspected gunman.

While no one was injured in any of the shootings, FBI investigators remain hopeful they will find who is behind them.

So far their still “active and ongoing investigation” has turned up no one.

Officials are also quick to point out this case is nothing like that of John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo, who killed 11 and wounded six others during a sniper-style shooting spree that shook the nation’s capital to its core in 2002.

Muhammed was put to death at a Virginia prison in Nov. 2009 and Malvo remains in a maximum security facility in the state, serving a life sentence.

“This is certainly one of the more sensitive investigations that we’ve worked this year, and we have been more sensitive about communication that we’ve provided to the public for this case,” said FBI Washington Field Office spokeswoman Catherine Schweit.

Investigators say the gunman so far has been lucky to have avoided wounding or killing anyone. But if the shooter fires again and this time someone gets shot, it would change the face of this case forever, said Schweit.

During the height of the investigation, when the shootings were still occurring, there was some speculation the FBI had or was going to make an arrest.

Immediately following one of the shootings, Schweit said she got a call into her office from a member of the media asking if agents had already, or were going to make an arrest.

It was nothing more than a rumor, she told the reporter, but she credits local media for not creating undue hysteria at a time when there are so many questions but few answers.

“The rumor mill can cause problems with us, making it more challenging for us do to what we need to, but we are pleased to work with a pool of responsible journalists in Washington who call us first with rumors,” said Schweit.

And according to an employee at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, the shattered glass on the museum’s facade has yet to be repaired.

No one at the museum Tuesday could speak as to when the repairs would be made.

Earlier this year, museum officials told PotomacLocal.com artifacts inside the museum were not at risk of being damaged.

On Nov. 15, the FBI offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.