On the morning of October 3, 2002, 54-year-old taxi driver Prem Kumar Walekar was shot and killed while fueling his cab at a Mobil station in Aspen Hill, Maryland. Originally from India, Walekar had worked as a sales representative before driving a cab part-time to help support his family; he planned to retire to a home he had purchased in India after his children were settled. Family remembered him as quiet, funny, generous, and caring.

Ballistics evidence linked Walekar’s murder to several other recent shootings in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that left residents fearful, with victims attacked while doing everyday tasks like pumping gas or shopping. A multi-agency manhunt culminated in the October 24, 2002 arrest of John Allen Muhammad and a 17-year-old accomplice; evidence recovered from a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice included a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle ballistically matched to Walekar’s killing and other scenes.

Anyone who knew Walekar or has information about his last day is asked to come forward.