On October 2, 2002, James Darrell Martin, 55, was fatally shot in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse in Wheaton, Maryland. Witnesses reported hearing a loud noise, then Martin crying out for help and collapsing. He was a program analyst at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and had worked there 16 years.

Martin was married and had an 11-year-old son at the time. His killing was later identified as the first in the string of shootings known as the D.C. Beltway Sniper attacks, which led to a large multi-agency investigation across Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Two suspects were arrested at a Maryland rest stop weeks later; subsequent court proceedings tied one of the defendants to Martin’s death.

Does anyone have memories of Martin, his family, or that Wheaton neighborhood in October 2002 that could add detail to the timeline?