ASHLAND, Va. -- On October 19, 2002, a terror spree that began two and a half weeks earlier in Maryland finally arrived at the doorstep of Richmond.
While walking across the parking lot of the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland, a Florida man named Jeffrey Hopper was shot in the abdomen and critically wounded. Witnesses described hearing the gunshot, but no one saw the shooter. It was an attack that bore all the hallmarks of the serial sniper.
Days later, investigators confirmed that the ballistics evidence recovered at the scene had been matched with other shooting cases in the region.
“Everybody was on edge,” said Col. Stuart Cook, the former sheriff of Hanover County. “It was frightening times, I mean, for everybody, law enforcement included.”
Cook recently sat down with CBS 6 to speak in detail about what went on behind the scenes, before and after the shooting and the Ponderosa. In fact, he had started getting ready for the worst well before John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo showed up in Ashland.
“As the shootings continued, it looked like the jurisdictions hadn't had a whole lot of cooperation with each other,” Cook said. “So I called Dave and said, ‘Dave, we need to get a plan together for the Richmond metropolitan area, because if a sniper comes, we need to be prepared for it.’”
Current Hanover Sheriff Dave Hines was Cook's right-hand man. He got the ball rolling on a regional sniper response plan.
“So that there wouldn't be any question as to who was going to be in charge where it happened,” said Hines. “As well as, how many people can we bring in? What assets are we going to bring in?” “We only finished that plan like a day before the sniper actually shot the individual at the Ponderosa,” said Cook.
Once that happened, Cook became the head of a newly formed Richmond-area sniper task force.
“We were descended upon, not just by law enforcement, we had the national media down there and that was a big mess,” said Cook.
But he made it known that his team was going to operate differently.
“We weren't going to do what they were doing in Northern Virginia, that if we had something to give you that will help us clear this case and put the citizens at ease, we're going to give it to you, but until then we're not coming back out and talking to you every 30 to 45 minutes just to have a dog and pony show.”
The task force’s mission was to solve the Ponderosa case and protect the community from another attack. Top of mind for everyone was the safety of local schools and children.
“Our kids were afraid, they were afraid because of the reaction that their parents were having and it was warranted,” said Hines.
Cook prioritized boots-on-the-ground police work, which received almost immediate praise.
“The sheriff's leadership has been critical to this investigation. Everyone has been very impressed with the prompt response and the investigative expertise demonstrated by you and your people,” said Montgomery County, MD., Police Chief Charles Moose during a news conference shortly after the Ashland shooting.
“One of the things that we were most keen and most concerned about was the integrity of the crime scene and the protection and chain of custody of the evidence,” said Cook. “And our men, with the Town of Ashland, sealed that crime scene down like that.”
From the bullet shell casing to a letter from the snipers that had been found tacked to a tree, the evidence found outside the Ponderosa would prove critical to solving this case, and later prosecuting Muhammad and Malvo. That's why Cook had his deputies process everything.
“You had the FBI coming down from D.C., the Secret Service, DEA, all those people were coming, but we wouldn't let them into the crime scene,” said Cook.
It's a decision he said rubbed some federal agents the wrong way, but something he knew was the right call.
“Our investigators actually flew on helicopters up to those respective labs (FBI and ATF) with the evidence. They signed it over to them and there was never a question about who had it and how was it handled. And so that really prevailed in court and later cases.”
Two decades have now passed since the Ponderosa shooting, but Cook and Hines still vividly recall how their deputies and their community, responded to the attack with vigilance and gratitude.
“Everybody was saying thank you, thank you for what you're doing,” said Hines. “They were thanking law enforcement officers for shutting an interstate down because that was the fear that had gone across the entire East Coast.”
Exactly two years after the attacks, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report detailing the lessons learned from the sniper investigation. The Richmond-area task force received high marks, especially for the way they handled the evidence, and how they interacted with the media.
“I tell you, there was a lot of good policework done,” said Cook.
