The tarot card left at a D.C. sniper crime scene — and the message police could not decode for weeks

The card was found at one of the crime scenes, a piece of evidence among shell casings and police tape.

It carried a message written for the officers working the case: "Dear Policeman, I am God."

The words were there for anyone to read, yet the record does not establish what specific tarot card it was, where exactly it was left, or when police first found it.

For weeks, the investigation moved without that message pointing anywhere.

The shootings had begun on October 2, 2002, a fatal attack in a parking lot in Wheaton, Maryland.

Over the following days, the attacks spread across Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Ten more people were killed, three others wounded, at gas stations, bus stops, and other public locations.

Schools closed. Residents stayed inside. Police Chief Charles Moose became the public face of a region on edge.

And somewhere in that chaos sat a tarot card with a killer's taunt.

It was only later, according to investigation evidence, that the message was linked to the suspects: John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

Not because police decoded it in real time.

Not because the handwriting matched a file.

But because the card was found, and the men were arrested, and only then did the pieces connect.

What did the message mean?

Why did it take weeks to understand?

That would require evidence the record does not provide.

What is known is that the card existed.

It said what it said.

And the men charged in the attacks were linked to it after their arrest, not before.

OCTOBER 2–22 — THE SHOOTINGS

October 2.

A man was shot and killed in a parking lot in Wheaton, Maryland.

It was the first fatal attack.

Over the following weeks, ten more people were killed.

Three others were wounded.

The shootings seemed random.

A gas station. A bus stop. A parking lot. A school.

The case summary records the locations as public, and the victims as strangers to one another.

There was no pattern.

There was no suspect.

Schools closed.

Residents avoided outdoor activities.

The region held its breath.

Chief Charles Moose became the public face of the investigation.

He coordinated a multi-jurisdictional task force.

The FBI was involved. The ATF was involved.

Still, the shots came.

October 3.

October 9.

October 11.

October 14.

Each report landed the same way: another person down, another scene cordoned, another question with no answer.

The final shooting occurred on October 22.

A bus driver was killed in Aspen Hill, Maryland.

That made eleven dead.

That made three wounded.

It is not established which specific shooting the tarot card was left at.

It is not established when the card was discovered.