Episode 38

full
Published on:

14th Jan 2026

They Had ONE Bullet Left - Inside the Beltway Sniper Arrest (Exclusive Firsthand Account)

Most people think the Beltway Sniper case ended with a dramatic takedown.

It didn’t.

It ended with a quiet rest stop, two officers, and a decision that sounds backwards: don’t rush in.

Retired Maryland State Police Lieutenant Dave Reichenbaugh was there, the on-scene commander during the capture of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. In this episode, he explains the real friction inside the manhunt:

  • Why the public wasn’t just “panicking”… they were the missing asset
  • The Fed vs. State vs. Local disagreement that changed the entire play
  • The moment forensics confirmed it was one gun (fast) and why that made it worse
  • The clue that shattered the terrorism theory: a tarot card that said “Call me God”
  • And the chilling detail that still follows him: the last bullet “twirling… and the tinkle on pavement.”

This isn’t a retelling. It’s a firsthand account from the person standing at the edge of the decision.

If you thought you knew the Beltway Sniper case… you knew the headlines.

This is what happened between them.

Guest: Dave Reichenbaugh, retired Maryland State Police Lieutenant

Topic: The Beltway Sniper arrest, the I-70 rest stop standoff, and the “last bullet” moment

Editorial Note: A statement made by the guest regarding John Allen Muhammad’s ideological influences reflects his personal perspective and is presented as commentary, not as a conclusively established fact.

Learn more or get involved: https://citizensbehindthebadge.org

Listen to more episodes of Heroes Behind the Badge.

Like, Subscribe, and Share to support the men and women who serve behind the badge.

Transcript
Dave Reichenbaugh:

The public is scared to death.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The public is calling in tag numbers of every white van from here to Mississippi.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The public will help us find this guy.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

All we gotta do is release it and within three minutes the phone rings and it's

Dave Reichenbaugh:

a guy in the arrest area in Frederick County right at the top of the South

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Mountain, the the I-70 Rest area that says that car is in the rest area.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I told them we don't have one weapon between us to fight back with and

Dave Reichenbaugh:

there's a good chance that he'll kill three of us before we even

Dave Reichenbaugh:

are, are, able to get up to the car.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So there was basically a very quiet standoff from, I wanna say 11:45 PM

Dave Reichenbaugh:

until about four in the morning when we finally got the assets together.

Dennis Collins:

23 days in late 2002.

Dennis Collins:

Okay.

Dennis Collins:

The Capital Beltway, the Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Maryland area,

Dennis Collins:

lived under a kind of fear that, thank God most of us never have experienced.

Dennis Collins:

That violence, that reign of terror, that was random.

Dennis Collins:

That was invisible.

Dennis Collins:

That was unpredictable.

Dennis Collins:

I mean, you had people zigzagging when they went to get gas and

Dennis Collins:

crouching down, uh, to get gas.

Dennis Collins:

They had friends standing guard while they did their errands.

Dennis Collins:

I mean, the schools got closed.

Dennis Collins:

No place felt safe to the public.

Dennis Collins:

The rules of, you know, the rules of engagement or the rules of protection,

Dennis Collins:

they just didn't apply anymore.

Dennis Collins:

So I am proud today to welcome our guest, Dave Reichenbaugh.

Dennis Collins:

Dave is a retired Maryland state police lieutenant, and during the

Dennis Collins:

Beltway sniper investigation served as the on-scene commander during the

Dennis Collins:

actual capture of the two people, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

Dennis Collins:

So this man has the inside scoop.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Once, once it all came together, as and I've said in my

Dave Reichenbaugh:

book, I've said it just about everywhere I've ever spoken, this was the most

Dave Reichenbaugh:

incredible group of police officers, a more than a thousand that I ever had

Dave Reichenbaugh:

the honor to work with and be a part of.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We were all singularly focused.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It didn't matter what your badge said or what your shoulder patch

Dave Reichenbaugh:

said, we're all on one team.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And that's sort of where all of a sudden it broke down and, the old

Dave Reichenbaugh:

fed versus state and local came in.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

There was a real disagreement as to, okay, we've, we know what we're looking for.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We've got a tag number, we've got a car.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We know who's in the car.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

What do we do with it?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Do we release it?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Do we keep it close in?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Try to find them ourselves.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And that's where the argument came in.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And of course, the, the, federal government was more on the line of,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Hey, let's keep this close to the vest, which, if you've worked with federal

Dave Reichenbaugh:

agents, that's the way they're trained.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I, get that, and there's valid reasons sometimes to do that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

As a state officer, and I was in on this meeting, and I, as luck would

Dave Reichenbaugh:

have it, because this was at night, I was the highest ranking state Maryland

Dave Reichenbaugh:

State police trooper in the room.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

My argument was, is listen, public is calling in tag numbers of every

Dave Reichenbaugh:

white van from here to Mississippi.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The public will help us find this guy.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

All we gotta do is release it.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Of course there was a philosophical argument, what to do with that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I made a phone call to Colonel, Mitchell and Colonel Mitchell agreed with me.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It, governor got involved and the decision was made.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Well, we don't care what the feds do, we're releasing it,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

releasing the information to the public, and it got released.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

In fact I was part of releasing that information and then I

Craig Floyd:

License plate number.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Yeah.

Craig Floyd:

Right.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Description.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Pretty much everything that we had.

Craig Floyd:

Okay.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And at that point I was sorta persona non grata at the,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

uh, task force office at that point.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and the colonel said, you've been up for several days.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Go home.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Home for me was Frederick County at that time, and I started up the road, and

Dave Reichenbaugh:

this is probably 11, 11:30 at night.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

By this time.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I get a call from the duty officer at the Frederick Barracks and he asked me

Dave Reichenbaugh:

to go to the our so-called confidential channel, which wasn't confidential.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It was just an off the wall channel that nobody ever listened to.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And he told me, Hey, we got.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It came out on WFMD radio and we're sitting here listening to it and within

Dave Reichenbaugh:

three minutes the phone rings and it's a guy in the rest area in Frederick

Dave Reichenbaugh:

County, right at the top of the South Mountain, the the I-70 REST area that

Dave Reichenbaugh:

says that car is in the rest area.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

What do you wanna do?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I said, well send everybody you got.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And he said, well, sir, he said, counting you, that would be two of us, because

Dave Reichenbaugh:

everybody else is in Montgomery County.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So that's how I wound up getting up there.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I was about number three, maybe four, four, officer up there.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I happened to, because I was a lieutenant, I wound up being

Dave Reichenbaugh:

in charge of, of the thing.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And, and, uh, I very quickly made the, the decision, 'cause we kicked it around.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The four of us kicked it around, Hey, let's just go in and storm that place.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And having known the case and that they were prone to hide the rifle in the

Dave Reichenbaugh:

woods, my thought process was, is okay if I'm them, if I'm the bad guy, I'm

Dave Reichenbaugh:

taking turns one sleeping in the car.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

One in the woods on Overwatch and I told them we don't have one weapon between us

Dave Reichenbaugh:

to fight back with.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and there's a good chance that he'll kill three of us

Dave Reichenbaugh:

before we even are, are able to get up to the car.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Hmm.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Because you gotta remember, this was the middle of the night.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

This was a rest area.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And at that time, those rest areas there, yeah, there was lights here and there, but

Dave Reichenbaugh:

very dark, heavily wooded, mountainside.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I thought, well, all right, we can prevent anybody from going in and we

Dave Reichenbaugh:

can prevent anybody from coming out.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We have enough people to do that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Let's do that and let's hold our ground and call for the cavalry.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So there was basically a very quiet standoff from, I wanna say 11:45 PM

Dave Reichenbaugh:

until about four in the morning when we finally got the assets together and the

Dave Reichenbaugh:

SWAT teams to be able to move in and take 'em 'cause my fear was if someone's,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

they obviously could shoot based on.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The horrible results that we had all seen.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and you know, as any, as any commander would,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

God knows, I was not going to unnecessarily risk anybody under

Dave Reichenbaugh:

my command when we could stand our ground and move when we were

Dave Reichenbaugh:

ready and not force the issue.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And that's how that all.

Bill Erfurth:

So how, how did it go down Dave?

Bill Erfurth:

Like, uh, were they both in the car?

Bill Erfurth:

Were they armed at the time?

Bill Erfurth:

Yes.

Bill Erfurth:

Were they sleeping?

Bill Erfurth:

How did it happen?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

As it turns out, and as I mentioned before,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and I don't mind calling 'em, they were morons just as we suspected.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

it turns out they were both fast asleep in that car.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and we had the, civilian that had called us.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Reported the car, they stayed in the rest area and they were sort of my

Dave Reichenbaugh:

eyes, if you will, inside the rest area.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And certainly I told 'em, you stay in that vehicle and you just talk to me.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

If you see moving around that vehicle, I wanna know about it.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And so I'm on one cell phone.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Now you gotta remember, this is a little bit ancient technology

Dave Reichenbaugh:

compared to what we have now.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I had.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

One cell phone that I'm, I'm talking to our witness, our

Dave Reichenbaugh:

civilian, and that was being relayed through the Frederick Barracks.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I had another cell cell phone that I was talking to, the joint operations

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Center in Montgomery County and a police radio that I'm trying to quietly.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Manage and, and get the people where I wanted them to, be.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So now that I think about it, that was forever, but it seemed like it

Dave Reichenbaugh:

wasn't at the time because you're so laser focused on number one.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I, never thought during this thing that we were gonna get out of

Dave Reichenbaugh:

there without taking casualties.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And, and of course that's any police commander's worst nightmare is, is,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

you know, and if I'd have ordered those troopers in there, they would've said,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

yes, sir. Let's go without a doubt.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I know that, and it was sort of a little bit of a

Dave Reichenbaugh:

strain, sort of like holding the canine back for his own safety.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So there was a little bit of that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

but as it went down, the, joint SWAT team, and that's, you know, the, the Maryland

Dave Reichenbaugh:

State Police team is called state,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

special tactical assault team element.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We had elements of Montgomery County SWAT team.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We also had FBI, so they had been.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

A team practicing jointly during this whole operation, just suspecting

Dave Reichenbaugh:

that whenever we did find him, this was going to be a shootout.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We all expected it.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

they were able to infiltrate the woods and there was some technology that I

Dave Reichenbaugh:

still will not talk about that was used,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

to sort of.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Determine.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Okay, there's two warm bodies in that car.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The woods were appeared to be clear, they were able to move

Dave Reichenbaugh:

in, walk up, smash a window out, flash, bang, and out they came.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I don't believe either of them touched the ground as they

Dave Reichenbaugh:

were brought out through windows.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Didn't bother opening the door.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

They were brought out through windows and quickly subdued without firing a shot.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We didn't hurt the bad guys.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

None of the good guys got hurt.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It really turned out to be a textbook operation and as I understand it,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

that's still used in in training for various assault teams or

Dave Reichenbaugh:

SWAT teams around the country.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The way that happened and the way it went down,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

you know, you prepare for the absolute worst and you hope for the best.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Well, by God, it, it turned out perfect.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It couldn't have been any better.

Bill Erfurth:

So the, the, the arrest was made without incident.

Bill Erfurth:

I am guessing that the weapons were in the vehicle.

Bill Erfurth:

Did the subjects make any statements?

Bill Erfurth:

What, did they say after the fact?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Now you have to remember there was still.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I'm going to say 15% of the doubt whether we had the right people or

Dave Reichenbaugh:

not, because it came together so quickly and there really wasn't time

Dave Reichenbaugh:

to go back and check and recheck.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

You know how investigations do this was, Hey, this is an active

Dave Reichenbaugh:

situation, let's move and we did.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So there's still that 15% doubt.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

There was no weapons obviously in.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Looking in the car.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and again, that was, I, I turned from incident commander to now I

Dave Reichenbaugh:

gotta protect the evidence all in the course of a half a second because

Dave Reichenbaugh:

as you can imagine, the police officers wanted to tear the car apart.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Nope.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Everybody out of the damn car we're getting a search warrant.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Muhammad, who was later executed by the state of Virginia.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Was terrified.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He soiled himself.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

he very much looked like the defeated suspect that us and law

Dave Reichenbaugh:

enforcement know when you got him.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And the bad guy knows he is gotten and it's that,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

oh shit, they got me.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I'm done.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Look on his face, Malvo on the other hand.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and I was within six to eight feet of him, and we had him, of course, handcuffed

Dave Reichenbaugh:

to the rear sitting, cross-legged on the pavement, he had, and the best way I can

Dave Reichenbaugh:

describe it is if you've ever watched, um, any of the Discovery Shark Week

Dave Reichenbaugh:

programs, they always show the white shark and all you see is the, the black eye.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

That was Malvo.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I mean, his eyes were cold black.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

There was no soul looking back at us.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And there was no doubt in my mind that if he would've had the chance, he

Dave Reichenbaugh:

would've tried to kill every one of us.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I love dogs.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I love police dogs.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Their handlers hated me because I always brought 'em all kinds

Dave Reichenbaugh:

of treats and stuff, which the handlers would get rather irritated.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

But, um, Rich Hoffenberg, God rest his soul.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He has since left us.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Um, he had his state police canine and that that dog was 110 pound

Dave Reichenbaugh:

German Shepherd, and he was riled up.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And the slobber, the teeth bearing.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He was holding him back, I'm telling you, six inches from that kid's face.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

You tell me what human being doesn't react to that there was no reaction

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and the less reaction, more pissed off that dog got.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I also had, uh, trooper Dragovich, who was a rather very

Dave Reichenbaugh:

large Maryland state trooper.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Six-seven, probably 240 and there wasn't any fat on that man,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and I had known him for years.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I said, trooper Dragovich, if he's so much as blinks, break his neck.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

No reaction.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

None.

Bill Erfurth:

So he was a stone cold killer.

Bill Erfurth:

And in the interest of time, absolutely.

Bill Erfurth:

We gotta keep this moving along, we got other things we need to ask you,

Bill Erfurth:

but, uh, so you do the search warrant.

Bill Erfurth:

Do you find the guns in the car?

Bill Erfurth:

Uh, what else can you tell us?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Yes, the, uh, the, the gun was found after

Dave Reichenbaugh:

we secured the search warrant.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Uh, so we're now well into daylight by this time.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The gun is found underneath the backseat where the backseat, the, back of the

Dave Reichenbaugh:

backseat could be lowered so that they could move from the passenger area into

Dave Reichenbaugh:

the trunk, into the prone sniper position.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The rifle was found there, and I'm telling you when that you

Dave Reichenbaugh:

couldn't have heard a pin drop.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

'cause we're all standing around watching the, uh, you know, the

Dave Reichenbaugh:

ATF technicians do their thing.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

They pulled that rifle out.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It was a collective.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We got 'em.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We, got the right guys.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

This is over.

Craig Floyd:

Talk about Malvo from how long

Dave Reichenbaugh:

was a United States citizen from the Atlanta area.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Served in the military, was an average soldier at best, but he

Dave Reichenbaugh:

was an extreme control freak.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And the way I've described it and after all of these years, I still believe

Dave Reichenbaugh:

this, and I will take this to my grave.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Muhammad thought he was smarter than everybody else.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Muhammad was the brains Malvo, for the lack of a better term, was the, muscle.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I don't believe Muhammad had the stones to do what he did, and Malvo had no soul.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So Malvo was looking for a means, and Muhammad served that purpose.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Fed him, moved him around, enabled him to kill.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And as far as Malvo was concerned, he was Mohammad's vessel, if you will.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I, I believe he to this day.

Craig Floyd:

Dave, you alluded to it earlier, so let's get into it.

Craig Floyd:

Um, Mildred Muhammad is the ex-wife of John Muhammad.

Craig Floyd:

Yeah.

Craig Floyd:

And she lived in the DC area.

Craig Floyd:

Um, there was a recent documentary, I think on Discovery tv.

Craig Floyd:

And basically, she revealed, and I think others have talked about this, uh, since

Craig Floyd:

the crimes occurred, that she was the ultimate target of all these mass killings

Craig Floyd:

because, um, in her mind, Mohammed wanted to kill her, but to try to disguise,

Craig Floyd:

him as the killer of his ex-wife.

Craig Floyd:

He would kill all these other people randomly and she would just be a, a

Craig Floyd:

random victim and they'd never figure out that he was the actual killer.

Craig Floyd:

talk to me about that.

Craig Floyd:

I mean, when did that come out?

Craig Floyd:

Obviously that wasn't during the, the reign of terror, but when did we learn

Craig Floyd:

about Mildred Muhammad and, and do you agree that she was the ultimate target?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Looking back, I do, but there's a caveat to this.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

John Muhammad was.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And the public generally doesn't know this either.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He was a follower of Osama bin Laden.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

he got disenfranchised for whatever reason.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

His goal was to move into some barren land out in western Canada someplace.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And he was going to get kids just like malvo from various parts of

Dave Reichenbaugh:

the country, disenfranchised kids.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Train them to be killers, then send sniper teams to various cities around

Dave Reichenbaugh:

the country and do this only one problem.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He really didn't have the means to be able to put that plan together.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

As I told you, he was a control freak and it just infuriated him in the fact that

Dave Reichenbaugh:

his wife was able to get the children.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Because there for a while, um, he had control of the kids and it took the

Dave Reichenbaugh:

courts to give the kids back to her, and she fled and wound up in Maryland.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The only thing he knew, she was somewhere in Maryland, he wasn't really

Dave Reichenbaugh:

sure, but he was such a freak that there was no way that he was going to

Dave Reichenbaugh:

permit her to have control of the kids.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So his goal sort of shifted, well, I'm, this is still my long range

Dave Reichenbaugh:

plan is to set up sniper teams, but I'm gonna get Mildred first.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So basically he sort of morphed his plan, if you will, and came up with the, all

Dave Reichenbaugh:

right, well, we'll start killing people in, in DC and eventually I'll kill her,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and then she'll just look like another.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

yeah, it was more complex than just the way you stated it.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

But yeah, there, his plan evolved.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The very honest, down to earth answer to that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and I'm not above saying it, we were all scared to death.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

we had no idea.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

What we were looking for or who we were looking for when this thing started.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and, and as you said, this is, coming a year after 9-11.

Dennis Collins:

Right.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So keep in mind that was all very, very fresh in

Dave Reichenbaugh:

every American's mind and every police officer's mind, especially those of

Dave Reichenbaugh:

us in criminal intelligence, because we were all expecting another attack.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We had no idea when it was gonna come, where it was gonna

Dave Reichenbaugh:

come, or how it was gonna come.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And this had all the earmarks within a few hours of, oh my God, this is it.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It's on our back door.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Are, we dealing with criminals or are we dealing with some

Dave Reichenbaugh:

sort of organized military unit?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

you know, you can, we can sit here and argue all day whether terrorists

Dave Reichenbaugh:

are up to that level or not, but when you're standing there and you've

Dave Reichenbaugh:

got a nine millimeter on your hip and, a shotgun in your police car,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

if you're lucky, you know, you're outgunned right out of the gate.

Dennis Collins:

Right,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And and we knew that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And so there was fear.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I can tell you this, all my years in law enforcement.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I was really never, ever afraid of, back home, you know, the safety of my wife.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

My kids at the time never crossed my mind, but this was the first time in

Dave Reichenbaugh:

my career that I felt not only are we looking for this to, solve it and

Dave Reichenbaugh:

to protect the public, but my God, I'm trying to protect my daughter

Dave Reichenbaugh:

that was going to to middle school.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

I think that's what changed it all because it changed the rules.

Dennis Collins:

you know, we're kind of used to the, rules of how to stay out of trouble, you know,

Dennis Collins:

how to keep our families out of trouble.

Dennis Collins:

This changed all the rules.

Dennis Collins:

Did it change the rules for law enforcement?

Dennis Collins:

Did you guys eventually have to look at this differently

Dennis Collins:

in order to get to a solution?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Yes, we did.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

early on those first.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Probably 10, 14 days of this we're really focused on this has got to

Dave Reichenbaugh:

be an act of terrorism and these are organized terrorists on a mission.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Then as the case started to unfold, we realized, you know what?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

These guys are just killers and morons,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and that was a shift.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I mean, that was a shift.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Now we're going from, all right, this isn't an organized attack.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

These are, I hate to say it, but sadistic killers that just want to kill, and they

Dave Reichenbaugh:

liked hearing their names on the, on the, uh, or that they didn't know their names.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Yeah, but they liked the news clippings.

Dennis Collins:

They liked the notoriety.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

That's absolutely correct.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Craig Floyd:

There, there were 10 people killed.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, during this, the reign of terror that lasted 23 days, uh, three people injured.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, I'm wondering, at what point in the investigation did you realize

Craig Floyd:

it was the same killers that were committing these heinous crimes?

Craig Floyd:

it, it had to take a while.

Craig Floyd:

I mean, uh, one person's killed in Maryland, another

Craig Floyd:

person's killed in Virginia.

Craig Floyd:

How did you put it together?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Quite honestly forensics, good old fashioned forensics.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Um, we actually knew it was the same gun within, as I recall, 72 hours.

Craig Floyd:

Wow.

Craig Floyd:

okay.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

From that first day when we had that spree of killings,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

ATF and they were terrific.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

They, as you know, their, their labs are some of the best in the world.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Within 72 hours, we knew we were, we're recovering bullets from the same gun.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And of course at that time that fed into the, you know, the whole aspect

Dave Reichenbaugh:

of these are foreign terrorists organized and sent here on a mission.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And it really wasn't until we got the first note and it

Dave Reichenbaugh:

was actually a tarot card.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And on top of the card was, call me God at that point.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I knew, all right, we're dealing with somebody that's on a God complex.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

These guys aren't foreign trained terrorists.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

These are homegrown idiots.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And that's when really the, for me, in my mind, that's, that's when it, it changed.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And quite honestly, it made it more terrifying in the sense.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Man, we really have no idea who was doing this or why, uh, because if you looked at

Dave Reichenbaugh:

the victims, they were completely random.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

You know, they were male, female, black, white, Hispanic.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

There, there didn't seem to be any connection to any of these

Dave Reichenbaugh:

victims other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bill Erfurth:

We're talking about the, uh, the beltway snipers

Bill Erfurth:

up in the DC metro area there.

Bill Erfurth:

And, uh, my recollection is that they concealed themselves

Bill Erfurth:

in the trunk of their vehicle.

Bill Erfurth:

They had a hole in the side of the vehicle so that they could put the barrel of the

Bill Erfurth:

rifle through and, uh, shoot these folks.

Bill Erfurth:

Talk about that.

Bill Erfurth:

Let, let's set the stage and talk about some of that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Well, this all goes back.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And then again, this is, uh, you know, how, how you've taught very, very early

Dave Reichenbaugh:

on in your career to don't make the evidence fit what you think, develop

Dave Reichenbaugh:

what you think based on the evidence.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

In other words, tunnel vision.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And we fell victim to it.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Hook, line, and sinker, because that first day, the gardener that

Dave Reichenbaugh:

looked up there was a shooting.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Um, a woman was shot on a park bench in front of a, a little chicken restaurant

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and there was a guy there spreading mulch.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And he looks up and he happens to see a white van leaving the parking lot.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And it, the whole focus became the white.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Van, if you happen to be driving a donut delivery white van, you are

Dave Reichenbaugh:

getting stopped four and five times a day with troopers, police officers,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

county, state, local, with guns in your face four and five times a day.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And we became so focused in on finding this white van and anybody

Dave Reichenbaugh:

knows this was all over the news.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

If these guys were in a white van on that first day, they sure as hell were

Dave Reichenbaugh:

not in a white van on by day four.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So there had to be other vehicles in involved in this.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And that's when we come up with sort of the idea,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

cops are curious, we're taught to be curious.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I just thought to myself, you know, if I'm out here working the

Dave Reichenbaugh:

street, because that first day before we really got organized.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I was like every other police officer I was, even though I was a lieutenant, I

Dave Reichenbaugh:

was out in my unmarked cars, patrolling Montgomery County looking for something.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and there were several tags, random tags.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Maybe the guy didn't look at me right, or looked a little

Dave Reichenbaugh:

strange, and I ran those tags.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Well, that's all recorded.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Every tag that you ever run is, is recorded.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I thought to myself, you know, you can't.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Sling a cat in Montgomery County without hitting a police officer.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We had the area completely flooded with police.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I thought to myself, you know what?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Somewhere along the line, there's a police officer that ran their

Dave Reichenbaugh:

tag, but we're, they weren't in a white van, so they didn't act on

Dave Reichenbaugh:

it, but they probably ran the tack.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

They didn't look right and when we got into this and then the intelligence

Dave Reichenbaugh:

start and we started drawing circles around the shootings and looking,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

you know, an hour before or an hour after damn effect car didn't show up.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

several times was called in.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The tag was run by police officers because they're cops.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Something didn't look right, something didn't feel right.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

But hey.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I don't have time to stop a blue caprice.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I'm looking for a damn white van.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And when it all came together, really the case came together

Dave Reichenbaugh:

within 12, 14 hours on that last day.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And we, got the tip from the old Army buddy out and on the west coast.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Hey, I, I think the sniper might be an old army buddy of mine, John Muhammad.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

That's when the pieces all came together.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Sure enough.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Yeah, there's a car with New Jersey tags out there associated with him.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And guess what?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

That car has shown up either an hour before or an hour after every shooting.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Police officers have called in the tag.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So when it came together, it all came together very, very quickly.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And then we knew really what we were looking for in that blue caprice.

Craig Floyd:

Dave tell, talk to me about.

Craig Floyd:

One aspect of this case that we haven't really, uh, touched on, uh, very deeply,

Craig Floyd:

and that is the coordination between Fed State and local law enforcement.

Craig Floyd:

As you said, there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of officers

Craig Floyd:

working this case one way or another.

Craig Floyd:

Charles Moose.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, the chief of police in Montgomery County was kind of

Craig Floyd:

the face of the investigation.

Craig Floyd:

Yes, he would be the guy every day giving us updates.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, the cameras, uh, the microphones in his face.

Craig Floyd:

and he really became the case in many ways.

Craig Floyd:

I got to meet him.

Craig Floyd:

Years later, and actually took him out to the storage facility where we

Craig Floyd:

had the car, uh, the blue Caprice.

Craig Floyd:

That was the sniper's nest.

Craig Floyd:

and interestingly, he said he had never seen the car.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, he had never, interviewed or been part of the arrest or had any interaction

Craig Floyd:

at, at all with Mohammed and Malvo, which I found interesting because as I

Craig Floyd:

understood it, he was actually notified that you had the, guys at the rest

Craig Floyd:

stop, you were gonna make the arrest.

Craig Floyd:

And, and, uh, he was more or less invited to, you know, be part of that

Craig Floyd:

since he was, uh, one of the heads of the investigation and he declined.

Craig Floyd:

And he told me in a, in a very personal conversation, he said, you know, I

Craig Floyd:

couldn't have helped any, uh, being there.

Craig Floyd:

He said, uh, we had our SWAT team, we had all these other officers that,

Craig Floyd:

that were trained to make the arrest and, uh, he had no reason to be there.

Craig Floyd:

I found that interesting because I think a lot of people thought

Craig Floyd:

Charles Moose was this, uh, egomaniac, uh, loved the attention.

Craig Floyd:

He ended up writing.

Craig Floyd:

A book about it.

Craig Floyd:

and yet to me, he was a very humble man.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

you know, the, the 24 hour news cycle had just really come out

Dave Reichenbaugh:

with the various networks covering stuff, you know, like the CNN's and the, the,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

the Fox News and the various networks.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

That was at first for us, as, as, well.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And we really didn't know how.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And the thought process was, is, well, we need to keep the public informed.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We need to tell these news people something.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And Chief Moose wound up being the face.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And quite honestly, we mistakenly put him out there, what, two or three times a day?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

which was a huge mistake for a lot of reasons.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And, and I think now you see these shootings, like the ones that

Dave Reichenbaugh:

we're currently dealing with now.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

the press conferences are much more controlled.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and it's not a free for all.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Back in those days, it was a free for all and Chief Moose was, was the face.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Um, I found him to be as, as you said, Craig, a humble guy.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I, I can remember, this was day one or day two, actually it was

Dave Reichenbaugh:

probably day two or day three.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Um, we're.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Montgomery County Police headquarters there in, in Rockville, and that was a,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

a building that was meant for maybe 40, 50 people to be in it at any one time.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And, and we have a hundred police officers from every agency you can think

Dave Reichenbaugh:

of, federal and state crammed in there.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

At first, I was answering the phone just like everybody else taking tips, and I,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

uh, it was getting late in the evening.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It was about 9:00 PM and we had basically been working around the clock.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I walked into the, to the hall to go to the men's room, and, there was Chief

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Moose standing there, and he looked at me and he said, he introduced himself

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and I introduced myself and he said, trooper, have you had anything to eat?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I said, no, sir, there hasn't been time.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He says, well, let me go get you some food.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We got some stuff coming in here.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Let me get you a cup of coffee and, a sandwich.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I said, chief, you don't have to do that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He says, oh, yes I do.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

You're you're here for us.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I've never forgotten that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I, believe he was a man that, that cared deeply about his officers.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He cared deeply about his community and he got thrown into a situation that

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I don't think, I'd argue there wasn't a police chief in, in the country that

Dave Reichenbaugh:

was ready for that, and he did the best he could with what he had to work with.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Now, going back, should he be out there three and four times a day?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

No.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We gave up way too much information to, to, to the public.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And then we had all the various networks as, you know, getting

Dave Reichenbaugh:

tips inside information.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So now what do we do?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We've got leaks, internal leaks.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

How do we manage it?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

it's much better now than back then, but, but Chief Moose fell into that.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

What's the old saying?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The first one into the jungle that's unknown.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He's gonna take a few hits.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Media.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

He took a lot.

Dennis Collins:

The media frenzy.

Dennis Collins:

The media frenzy.

Dennis Collins:

You know, I, I I like to ask the question because the media in this day

Dennis Collins:

and age can sometimes be part of your solution or can be part of your problem.

Dennis Collins:

Okay?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Yes.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We learned that in this case.

Dennis Collins:

And, what would you, how would, I'm, kind of reading between

Dennis Collins:

the lines, but how would you assess the media as it played out in this case?

Dennis Collins:

Part of the problem or part of the solution?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

The first two and a half, The first 22

Dave Reichenbaugh:

days, they were a problem.

Dennis Collins:

Got it.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Because we had to, we had to manage that as best we could.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We had internal leaks.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

There was information, investigative information out there that should never

Dave Reichenbaugh:

have been out there, and we all know that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Now on the media's part they were in competition with each other.

Dennis Collins:

Of course.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

You had the Geraldo Rivera, who's typically

Dave Reichenbaugh:

a night a a terrific guy.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

You had him out there, but of course he wants the scoop.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

That's right.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

You had other folks from other networks that wanted to scoop, so

Dave Reichenbaugh:

they had an internal competition to see who could outshine the other.

Dennis Collins:

That's right.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And this investigation fell somewhere

Dave Reichenbaugh:

in the middle with the police.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Us, quite honestly, we weren't prepared to handle this.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

now much.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So we are, the last day, if it wasn't for the media, those guys might still

Dave Reichenbaugh:

be out there because they were, their plan was, is the following day, they

Dave Reichenbaugh:

only had one bullet left for that rifle.

Dennis Collins:

Interesting.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

They, they were scooting town.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

They were off to parts unknown.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Um, because I, I can tell you, and I, you know, and

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I'm digressing here a little bit, but one of the most chilling things,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and I can still hear it sometimes at night, is when ATF pulled that rifle

Dave Reichenbaugh:

outta the car and they made it safe, the one bullet that was in the rifle,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

of course, you know, they jacked that receiver back and I can still see that

Dave Reichenbaugh:

bullet twirling in the air and hear the tinkle of it when it hit the pavement.

Dennis Collins:

Wow.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

That was the most chilling part of this whole thing for me.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I, it sounds a little ludicrous, but I can still picture that damn bullet

Dave Reichenbaugh:

coming outta that receiver, you know, sort of twirling in the air and landing

Dave Reichenbaugh:

on the, uh, the pavement with a tinkle.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

the, the book came apart, came about as a part of being furious.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Watching, I don't know if you all recall, there was a movie, I think

Dave Reichenbaugh:

it might have sold six tickets.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and that was six tickets too many.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Those people got ripped off.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It was called Blue Caprice.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and I see it every once in a while on, you know, the various movie channels

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and it was about the beltway snipers.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

But if you watch that movie, you knew nothing about law enforcement and

Dave Reichenbaugh:

you knew nothing about any of this.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

You watched that movie and you thought

Dave Reichenbaugh:

those killers are nothing but poor folks that society has done wrong.

Dennis Collins:

Oh, wow.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And that infuriated me.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And by the way, I've never watched the whole movie.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Then as I, I told you, my canine trooper up there at the time was a guy

Dave Reichenbaugh:

by the name of Rich Hoffenberg, who became retired, became Chief of Police

Dave Reichenbaugh:

of Boonsboro, and, he passed, passed away, had a heart attack and was gone.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And it dawned on me and I was asked, even though I'd retired, I was still

Dave Reichenbaugh:

going around the country teaching at various, presenting this case at various

Dave Reichenbaugh:

law enforcement, uh, functions, and.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I would tell the story and, and I would have detectives come up

Dave Reichenbaugh:

to me after my presentation and say, wow, what you're telling me

Dave Reichenbaugh:

is nothing that, that we've heard.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Uh, you need to write a book.

Dennis Collins:

Ah,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

my wife kept telling me, you need to write a book.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And when, when Rich, who was a good friend of mine passed, it

Dave Reichenbaugh:

dawned on me, you know what?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

If somebody doesn't write the truth?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It's gonna disappear.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And this still, and I believe it still is the largest single

Dave Reichenbaugh:

manhunt in law enforcement, American law enforcement history.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

We had over a thousand police officers on this manhunt nonstop.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I decided to write a book.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I had no idea how to do it.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Um.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I thought, you know, I write a pretty mean police report.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I can do this.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So no problem, huh?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I, got some help from a high school friend who is a writer and she got me

Dave Reichenbaugh:

started and we went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth with

Dave Reichenbaugh:

outlines, and finally she looked at me and called me up and said, stop sending

Dave Reichenbaugh:

me outlines, write the damn book.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So I wrote the book and I got extremely lucky and I was able to.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

get an attorney that had some connections and I wound up getting an agent

Dave Reichenbaugh:

and the book got published in 2018.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So I, really put a lot of personal stuff in that book.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

But keep in mind, um, one of the things that I feared was, I'm certainly no hero.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I was just one of the boys in the band here and happened to be.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

In the right place at the right time.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

'cause I knew the case from day one until obviously slapping

Dave Reichenbaugh:

the handcuffs on the bad guys.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

it's dedicated really to the thousand police officers from federal,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

state, local that is out there.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And I wanted the police side of it.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

To be written down for history.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So that really was my motivation for, writing.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It was to try to preserve history and as I think we discussed when we first came

Dave Reichenbaugh:

on, you know, I'm sort of a civil war buff and, you know, yeah, I, I walk around the

Dave Reichenbaugh:

battlefield that's in my backyard and, you know, everybody knows the public part of

Dave Reichenbaugh:

it, but I, I like the little stories of.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Of the soldiers that fought and what they thought and, why they

Dave Reichenbaugh:

were doing what they were doing.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So all of that was motivation for me to write the book.

Dennis Collins:

Absolutely.

Dennis Collins:

Well, again, I, I wanna thank you on behalf of Craig and Billy

Dennis Collins:

and all of us at Heroes Behind the Badge, uh, for sharing today.

Dennis Collins:

You really?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Yeah.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Also, uh, you can get the book on Amazon.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It,

Dennis Collins:

I was gonna say, let's make sure we let people know where it is.

Dennis Collins:

It's on Amazon, right?

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Yes.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

And, uh, Barnes and Noble, every once in a while you can

Dave Reichenbaugh:

go in and ask them for the book.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

If they don't have it on the shelf, they can get it for you.

Dennis Collins:

Easiest

Dave Reichenbaugh:

you don't doing with Amazon.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

The easiest way is Amazon.

Dennis Collins:

Some people don't like it.

Dennis Collins:

But in Pursuit, the hunt for the beltway.

Dennis Collins:

Snipers by our guests today.

Dennis Collins:

Uh, Dave Reichenbaugh, who has told on this podcast an amazing story.

Dennis Collins:

If you thought you knew a little bit about the Beltway Sniper case, Uhuh,

Dennis Collins:

if you missed any part of this podcast.

Dennis Collins:

Go back, rewind, listen to what Dave has to say.

Dennis Collins:

He's sharing personal opinions, personal impressions of what happened.

Dennis Collins:

That's invaluable and I thank you for, sharing that with

Dennis Collins:

us and with our audience.

Dennis Collins:

Dave, thanks for being our guest.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Well, it has been an absolute honor and it has been an

Dave Reichenbaugh:

honor to be involved with the National Law Enforcement Officers Museum.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I was there when, when it opened.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Yes, sir. It's just an amazing tribute to all of our brothers and sisters

Dave Reichenbaugh:

serving past and unfortunate ones that laid their life down for all of us.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

It

Dennis Collins:

absolutely,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

it's an honor for me and I, and I will close

Dave Reichenbaugh:

with, my granddaughter who's now 12, and this goes back a couple years.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

She was probably eight years old and.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I took her down within, oh, I don't know, two or three weeks when the museum

Dave Reichenbaugh:

opened and we paid a little visit and of course looked at the sniper visit,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

visit, and I'll never forget, she looked at me and said, pap, you are in a museum.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

So that was, I didn't quite know how to take that.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I think that's a little bit, actually I think it was, but when you think

Dave Reichenbaugh:

about it, oh my God, I'm that old.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I'm in a museum and maybe I'm at this point 47 years.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

I am a museum piece without a doubt.

Dennis Collins:

Thank God.

Dennis Collins:

And we're still kicking buddy.

Dennis Collins:

We're still here.

Dave Reichenbaugh:

Hey, when you wake up and you don't have dirt

Dave Reichenbaugh:

in your face, it's a good day.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

As long as you're looking down on the grass, you know, that's, that's,

Dave Reichenbaugh:

that's exactly right.

Dennis Collins:

Well, again, many, many thanks, Dave.

Dennis Collins:

For, what you shared with us today.

Dennis Collins:

I wanna remind our listeners, our viewers, you have been listening

Dennis Collins:

to Heroes Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

Yes.

Dennis Collins:

Our podcast is called Heroes.

Dennis Collins:

Behind the Badge, we bring stories just like Dave's story.

Dennis Collins:

You'll never hear this anywhere else.

Dennis Collins:

This is Dave's story that he told to you right here on Heroes Behind the

Dennis Collins:

Badge, and we have a lot of them, and I advise you to hit subscribe, hit

Dennis Collins:

like Hit Follow, hit all three, hit everything you can hit so that you can

Dennis Collins:

become a fan of Heroes Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

This podcast is presented by Citizens Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

Citizens Behind the Badge is the leading voice of the American people in support

Dennis Collins:

of the men and women of law enforcement.

Dennis Collins:

You can get involved right now, right today, CitizensBehindTheBadge.org.

Dennis Collins:

Some people call it.org.

Dennis Collins:

CitizensBehindTheBadge.org.

Dennis Collins:

You can get involved.

Dennis Collins:

You can find out what it takes to support law enforcement.

Dennis Collins:

You can join the voices of hundreds and hundreds of thousands

Dennis Collins:

of Americans who are already.

Dennis Collins:

Supporting their police.

Dennis Collins:

So get involved.

Dennis Collins:

We'd love to see you get involved with Citizens Behind the Badge,

Dennis Collins:

and we thank you for being a loyal viewer and listener to our podcast.

Dennis Collins:

We frequently release new episodes.

Dennis Collins:

You'll be the first to know when you hit follow.

Dennis Collins:

Like subscribe.

Dennis Collins:

You will be the first to know when a new episode drops.

Dennis Collins:

Heroes behind the badge.

Dennis Collins:

Signing off for now for Craig and Bill Frith.

Dennis Collins:

It's Dennis Collins.

Dennis Collins:

We'll see you next time.

All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for Heroes Behind the Badge

About the Podcast

Heroes Behind the Badge
We tell REAL stories about REAL cops.  And we expose the fake news about police and give you the REAL truth.
From the front lines to the final call, Heroes Behind the Badge brings you the untold stories of America's law enforcement community. Led by Craig Floyd, who spent 34 years working alongside police officers across the nation, alongside veteran facilitator Dennis Collins and law enforcement expert Bill Erfurth, this podcast cuts through misconceptions to reveal the true nature of modern policing.

Our dynamic trio brings unique perspectives to each episode: Craig shares deep insights from his decades of experience and relationships within law enforcement, Dennis guides conversations with meticulous research and natural flow, and Bill adds engaging commentary that makes complex law enforcement topics accessible to all listeners.

Each episode features in-depth conversations with law enforcement professionals, sharing their firsthand experiences, challenges, and triumphs. Drawing from extensive research and real-world experience, we explore the realities faced by the over 800,000 officers who serve and protect our communities every day.

From dramatic accounts of crisis response to quiet moments of everyday heroism, our show illuminates the human stories behind the badge. We dive deep into the statistics, policies, and practices that shape modern law enforcement, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of what it truly means to serve in law enforcement today.

Whether you're a law enforcement professional, a concerned citizen, or someone seeking to understand the complexities of modern policing, Heroes Behind the Badge provides the context, insights, and authentic perspectives you won't find anywhere else. Join us weekly as we honor those who dedicate their lives to keeping our communities safe, one story at a time.

Presented by Citizens Behind the Badge, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for law enforcement professionals across the United States. Join over 126,000 Americans who have already signed our Declaration of Support for law enforcement at behindbadge.org.