Former Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who headed the D.C. sniper investigation, has died at his home in Florida. He was 68.
Longtime Montgomery County community activist Greg Wims worked closely with Chief Moose during those days of terror in October 2002.
He witnessed the desperate effort to stop the sniper shootings that killed ten people and left three others critically injured in Maryland, Virginia and the District.
Wims remembers seeing Moose’s composure, a reflection of his time in the military, shaken only one time: when a young boy was shot near a school in Bowie.
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Chief Moose was hailed as a hero for his role in heading the sniper investigation that led to the capture of John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. However, he resigned from the police department only a year later.
It followed a disagreement with Montgomery County regarding a policy that barred him from writing a book about the sniper investigation.
Charles Moose served as a Squadron Commander in the D.C. Air National Guard. He was also an advisor to the New Orleans Police Department in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
He later joined the Honolulu Police Department.
In 2012, Moose retired to Tampa, Florida. In a Facebook Post, his wife Sandy said her husband died at home while watching a football game.
She wrote, “He meant so much to so many.”
