The children were young at the time and believed that their mother would eventually join them on this island nation (per True Crime Daily). Once John Allen Muhammad came back to the U.S. with them, the children were given to their mother after an emergency custody hearing. The killing spree began just months afterward with the shooting death of 21-year-old Keenya Cook. By late October of that year, nine more had died.
Muhammad himself died at the hands of the state of Virginia on November 10, 2009. Mildred Muhammad spoke to the Associated Press (via NBC News) and stated that she and her three children viewed the news coverage of his execution from their home. At the time of their father’s death, they were all teenagers — John was 19, Salena 17, and Taalibah 16. Per NBC News, Mildred told the Associated Press that after the coverage was over, her children “went into different rooms and cried.” The children of the D.C. sniper had each requested to see their father one last time before he was put to death, but the letters they wrote to him went unanswered.
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Mildred would go on to pen the book “Scared Silent” about the ordeal she and her children survived (per Amazon). Today, she’s a well-known advocate for survivors of domestic violence and a certified consultant for the U.S. Department of State and the Justice Department (per the author’s website).
