The tarot card left at a crime scene — and the message that still haunts detectives

The card was left on the ground at one of the crime scenes.

It was a tarot card, and on it someone had written a message by hand.

"Dear Policeman, I am God."

That message is in the case record. It is documented evidence, not a rumor and not an online theory.

It was left sometime between October 2 and October 24, 2002, during the three weeks of shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

The attacks spanned Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Ten people were killed. Three others were wounded.

The shootings happened at gas stations, at shopping centers, at schoolyards. Schools kept children indoors. Residents were afraid to pump gas.

The exact crime scene where the card was found is not specified in the source. Which shooting it was left at is also not specified.

The record holds the card and the words. It does not hold the location.

A tarot card with a taunt in handwriting. A claim of divinity addressed to a policeman.

Who left it there? Why that message, and why that card?

That would require evidence the record does not provide.

The card remains what it was: a piece of paper, a message, a documented artifact from a case that paralyzed a region.

THREE WEEKS OF TERROR

Between October 2 and October 24, 2002, a series of shootings terrorized the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area across Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Ten people were killed and three wounded in seemingly random attacks at gas stations, shopping centers, and schoolyards.

Schools kept children indoors.

Residents were afraid to pump gas.

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose led the investigation and held daily press briefings.

A witness reported seeing a white van near one of the shootings.

Later, a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice was identified as the vehicle.

The specific witness's identity and the exact timing of the white van sighting are not in the source.

The suspects were linked to the shootings through ballistics evidence and a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle found in the car.

That rifle would become central to the case.

The region watched.

The region waited.

Every stop at a gas station carried a risk.

Every schoolyard felt exposed.

The randomness was the terror.

The record establishes the shootings, the casualties, and the fear.

What it does not establish is a pattern the public could use to predict the next one.

That would require evidence the record does not provide.

The paralysis was real, and it was documented.

Chief Moose stood before cameras daily, his briefings the only steady rhythm in three weeks of chaos.

The attacks ended on October 24 with the arrest of two men at a rest stop off Interstate 70 in Maryland.

But that is the next part of the story.

THE ARREST AND THE RIFLE

The tip came from a truck driver who had heard about the suspects' vehicle on the news.

He recognized the car and called it in.

On October 24, 2002, police arrested two men at a rest stop off Interstate 70 in Maryland.