(Jamaica Observer) Blue Caprice, a movie recalling the DC sniper murders in Maryland and Virginia 10 years ago, premieres next month at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
Ten persons were killed and three injured in the shootings which had a strong Jamaican component. It involved Lee Boyd Malvo, a troubled Kingston-born teenager and his psychotic mentor John Lee Muhammad, an African-American whom Malvo and his mother first met in Antigua in 2001.
Popular actor Isaiah Washington (Grey’s Anatomy, Love Jones) plays Muhammad, while Tequan Richmond, star of the television sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, has the role of Malvo.
Tony Award winner April Yvette Thompson plays Una James, Malvo’s mother.
Blue Caprice is directed by Alexander Moors, who has directed music videos for acts like Jennifer Lopez and Estelle.
The movie will premiere nine years after Muhammad and Malvo first appeared in Federal court in the state of Virginia where five of the shootings took place between October 2 and 22, 2002.
Muhammad was found guilty in March 2004 and sentenced to death the following year. He died by lethal injection in 2009.
Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December 2003. He is an inmate at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia.
When the story broke a decade ago, international media descended on Jamaica searching for Malvo’s roots and how he transformed from a shy boy with a rural upbringing into a cold-blooded murderer.
Interviews were conducted with teachers at his school in St Ann, his mother and absentee father.
Malvo and his mother had met Muhammad, a former United States Marine, in Antigua one year before the shootings. Using illegal documents, they moved to the US where Malvo settled in Tacoma, Washington with Muhammad.