Sniper was in Blair's backyard

The two suspects in the recent sniper shootings frequented the Silver Spring YMCA, located less than a mile from Blair, according to multiple witnesses. YMCA patrons may have unknowingly shared facilities with suspects John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, who witnesses say worked out and showered there throughout the period of attacks.

Authorities were first alerted to the tie between the men and the YMCA after two YMCA employees recognized the suspects from photographs broadcast on television on Oct 23, the day before the suspects were taken into custody. The staff members contacted the FBI the next evening.

Another YMCA employee, who is a recent Blair graduate and wished to remain anonymous, also recognized the suspects. "When I saw the 17-year-old's picture, that's when I remembered them—quick," she said. "I was like, ‘Holy [expletive]!' I mean, I remembered that boy."

According to the Blair graduate, the pair visited the Silver Spring YMCA, using out-of-state IDs, for several weeks and never attracted much attention. "They were coming in a month before they even started shooting people. They didn't look like killers at all," she said, adding that they were "friendly" and that Muhammad often brought a laptop.

During the three weeks of attacks, she remembers the pair asking about the shootings. "They would ask for news about the snipers," the Blair graduate recalled. But the questions did not arouse suspicion. "Everybody would say, ‘Have you heard anything else about the snipers,' so for them to ask us, it was no big deal," she said.

The erroneous profile of the killers publicized prior to the arrests also helped Muhammad and Malvo hide in plain sight. "They would act like they were father and son," explained the Blair graduate. "For example, the older man would say, ‘Tell my son I'll be in the car.' And both of their IDs had the same [last] name on them. Everyone thought [the sniper] was a white man; why would we look at a black man and what we thought was his son any differently?"

Though the suspects are already in custody, information about their attendance at the YMCA remains valuable to investigators, who are attempting to outline the movements of the suspects over the past several months. A media services representative of the Montgomery County Department of Police (MCPD) called the investigation "very much ongoing." The objective has simply shifted from apprehending the shooters to developing a timetable that could place them at the scene of other unsolved crimes.

YMCA workers as well as investigators have searched visitor logs in vain for the suspects' names. "Everyone has to sign the book when they pay the $1.50, when they come in," the Blair graduate said. "They must have signed in on a different name."

Lacking concrete evidence like the suspects' signatures in YMCA records, investigators appear to be relying heavily on witnesses to come forward with information. "The more witnesses that we can get to collaborate the time, the place, what type of equipment they were working on, the stronger we feel that it indeed was [Muhammad and Malvo]," said MCPD spokesman Derek Baliles.

For now, the Blair graduate is confident that the men she remembers frequenting the YMCA were Muhammad and Malvo and is unsettled at the thought. "It's scary to think that you were face-to-face with a killer," she said. "We cancelled all of our outside activities for the children because of the shootings, and little did [the parents] know, their children were swimming with the snipers."

The Washington Post reported on Oct 30 that witnesses placed the suspects at the YMCA on Oct 22, shortly after the shooting of a bus driver prompted the formation of roadblocks on major roads in the area. Senior Emma Simson was one of several Blair students who decided to stop in at the YMCA that day. "I got turned away from school that Tuesday, and I was scared to go home by myself because of the sniper," Simson said, "so I went to the Y instead. And I just found out he was probably there at the same time."

Employees of the YMCA and patrons like Simson could have been in danger from the suspects, according to Baliles. "These people thought nothing of shooting people any time, anywhere, any race, any sex," said Baliles, echoing the words of Police Chief Charles Moose. "Everyone in the metropolitan area was in danger at one time or another. Whether they intended to carry out their violence [in the YMCA] or in the parking lot is unknown right now."