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We shot golfer, D.C. sniper says

Authorities say Lee Boyd Malvo’s admission to a Clearwater shooting isn’t credible.
Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo tells authorities he and John Allen Muhammad were responsible for four shootings, including one in Pinellas before their three-week killing spree in the Washington area in 2002.

By JACOB H. FRIES
Published June 16, 2006

CLEARWATER — Albert S. Michalczyk was about to tee off on the seventh hole at Glen Oaks Golf Course when he heard a bang. The 72-year-old thought he had been hit by a golf ball until he looked at the front of his shirt.

“Blood was gushing out of my chest,” Michalczyk said Friday, recalling the afternoon in May 2002 when he was shot through the right chest. “We never could find any concrete evidence of who shot me.”

He hopes that’s about to change.

The Washington Post reported Friday that convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo recently told authorities that he and John Allen Muhammad were responsible for four additional shootings — including Michalczyk’s — before their three-week killing spree in the Washington area in October 2002.

The Post, citing an unnamed source familiar with the case, said Malvo’s admissions brought the list of confirmed and suspected sniper shootings to 27, including 17 homicides. The Post, however, also noted that Malvo has made contradictory statements about the shootings in the past and acknowledged those lies during testimony last month.

Aside from Michalczyk, the other victims Malvo claimed were a man killed in Los Angeles during a robbery in February or March 2002; a man shot to death May 27 in Denton, Texas; and John Gaeta, 54, who survived an Aug. 1 robbery and shooting near Baton Rouge, La.

Clearwater detectives are skeptical of Malvo’s latest claim, police spokesman Wayne Shelor said. They investigated in 2002 and found no link betwen the duo and the Michalczyk shooting.

“During the course of the Beltway sniper investigation, Clearwater investigators compared notes with the task force,” Shelor said. “We never found any connection whatsoever with Muhammad or Malvo. We also have not had any contact with investigators or prosecutors in recent months.”

Shelor added that he was confident law enforcement officials in Washington would have notified Clearwater police had they found Malvo’s statement to be credible.  Even so, Shelor said detectives plan to revisit Michalczyk’s shooting.

“In a perfect world, if there’s any validity, young Malvo will detail for us the hows, the whys and the whens,” Shelor said.

One of Malvo’s attorneys, Timothy J. Sullivan, declined to comment Friday on what additional information the 21-year-old might have provided authorities. Prosecutors in Maryland’s Montgomery County, where Muhammad’s trial was held last month, also declined to answer questions.

Malvo and Muhammad were arrested in October 2002 after 10 people were shot to death and several others wounded in the Washington area. Muhammad, 45, who has been convicted of murder in Virginia and Maryland, awaits execution in Virginia. Malvo, convicted of murder in Virginia, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.

As for Michalczyk, he said he hopes he might soon know who shot him on May 18, 2002, as he played golf with family. He recalls vividly how the bullet tore through his right chest and how, if he had turned his shoulder another way, it could have hit his heart.

“After two hours in the hospital, doctors told me to go home and buy a lottery ticket,” recalled Michalczyk, who was visiting from Arizona, where he lives. “I was that lucky.”

Investigators never found the bullet but think it was fired from a small-caliber rifle.

Michalczyk, now 76, said he and his wife suspected early on that Malvo and Muhammad might be involved, especially after they learned Malvo lived for a time in Fort Myers with his mother.

“We put two and two together but we could never get four,” he said. “Maybe now we can.”

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Jacob H. Fries can be reached at jfries@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4156.

[Last modified June 16, 2006, 22:24:02]