For 23 days in October of 2002, the more than five million people living across the region known as the Washington DC Beltway lived in fear for their lives. They had a right to be. Somebody was shooting at them as they went about their daily routines, gassing up their cars, waiting for a bus, going shopping and just relaxing outside on a bench. It would change the behavior of thousands - you’d see them running zigzag patterns across parking lots to the safety of indoor shelter. Others would sit slumped down in the driver seat of their cars after locking the gas pump nozzle to hands-free, hoping that they would be concealed from the killer's sights. At first, it seemed as though the killer or killers were ghosts, that is until they began to regularly engage with and taunt the investigators with their demands. Law enforcement responded with dogged determination. It ended with the capture of an unlikely duo of stone-cold killers -- but not until 10 innocent people would die and 3 more would be seriously injured. Watch and listen to retired ATF Special in Charge, Mike Bouchard, one of the operation’s senior commanders, take you inside what has been called the largest manhunt ever conducted in the United States.
GUEST:
Mike Bouchard recently retired as the Chief Security Officer for Caliburn International, a U.S. defense contractor.
He retired from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) where he served in a number of key positions such as: Assistant to the Director, Assistant Director Field Operations, Deputy Assistant Director for Strategic Intelligence and Information, Special Agent in Charge, Baltimore Field Division and Chief, Arson and Explosives Programs.
Throughout his career, he supervised several significant incidents for ATF including ATF’s assets at the Pentagon on and after September 11, 2001, and he was one of the three overall incident commanders during the Beltway Sniper investigation. He also managed ATF’s National Response teams at the 2002 Winter Olympics and at numerous large scale fire and explosion scenes.
Prior to joining ATF, he was a police officer. He earned a Master’s of Science degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College, Washington DC, and a Bachelors of Science degree in Fire and Arson Investigation from the University of New Haven, West Haven, Connecticut. He also attended the “Pinnacle” course for senior flag officers at the National Defense University, Washington DC; was a member of the Senior Executive Service for more than four years and received extensive executive leadership training throughout his career. He is also a Certified Protection Professional through ASIS. He also served on the ASIS board of directors for four years and served as a member of the ASIS Standards and Guidelines Commission which oversees the development of standards for the security industry.