Excerpts from a taped interrogation by Prince William County Detective Samuel Walker of teenage sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo in November 2002:
Walker: If there were other people at the gas pumps, OK, why did you select the target, the man?
Malvo: He came within my zone.
Walker: How long have you been shooting?
Malvo: Not even a year.
Walker: Not even a year? You learned pretty fast.
Malvo: I tried.
Walker: What did you train on?
Malvo: Paper plates.
Walker: Paper plates? Oh yeah.
Malvo: Head.
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Walker: For the head? So paper plates represent the head? What kind of weapon? Because obviously you are pretty good. . . . Were there some people you wanted not to die?
(Malvo shakes his head no.)
Walker: You intended to kill them all?
(Malvo nods his head yes.)
Walker: Everyone you shot you intended to kill?
Malvo: Well, I, I intended to kill them all.
Walker: OK, did you want us to catch you?
Malvo: I would prefer to be elusive, unknown and free.
Walker: So why do you think we caught you?
Malvo: My, my laziness, my lack of discipline.
Walker: Were you the triggerman in all of them?
Malvo: Basically yeah.
Walker: Basically. OK. Basically means in most of them but not all?
Malvo: In all of them.
Walker: You were the triggerman in all of them.
(Malvo nods yes.)
Walker: OK, why?
Malvo: It’s a plan; you stick to it. You don’t deviate; you don’t change it.