John Lee Malvo

	AP photo

Lee Boyd Malvo, born in Kingston, Jamaica, was arrested in the early morning of October 24, 2002 in Frederick County, MD in connection with the infamous "sniper slayings." Because these allegedly connected murders had been committed in a multiplicity of locations, a jurisdictional competition erupted over the right to be the first to try, convict, and execute the 17-year-old for these crimes.

While little is now known about Lee Boyd Malvo, initial reports suggest that he was desperate for a father figure and 41-year-old John Muhammad seemed to fill this gap. Having moved many times and been abandoned periodically by his mother, Malvo was searching for someone to provide guidance and structure in his life.

Many Americans ponder how immigration did not know or was aware of the fact that John Malvo was wandering around in this country for 10 months, with no documentation. He was thought to have been smuggled into this country, via Florida, by family and friends. Of course this puts the Immigration and Naturalization Service under some serious scrutiny.
The agency detained Malvo and his mother in 2002, and should of deported them but they released them. This is not an uncommon occurrence in FLorida.

Una James, Malvo's mother, who was also accused of entering the United States illegally with her son, was required to post a $1,500 bond, pending a Nov. 20 deportation hearing. Malvo, then 16, was released into the custody of his mother, which is standard INS policy, the official said.

James and Malvo were cited by a Border Patrol officer in January for illegally entering the United States after Bellingham, Wash., police investigated an incident at a homeless shelter where they were living. They told the officer that they had arrived in the United States as stowaways on a ship filled with Asians, Tancredo said.

What personally ticked me off was that many Black Americans separated the fact of color from this case, by stating because of his Jamaican status that made him a "different" black. What does that mean? Historically when the case is archived, he will be viewed as that of African descent.

So now to add to the other tourist attractions on the island, Jamaica has to have the distinction of giving birth to one of the worst sniper shootings in American History.