The store where Claudine Parker was murdered

This is the ABC Select Spirits store where the D.C. snipers killed Claudine Parker.

It is located at 2690 Zelda Road in Montgomery, Alabama.

At around 7.15 p.m. on September 21st, 2002, the 52-year-old liquor store clerk was shot in the back during closing time.

Parker's coworker, Kellie Adams, survived the attack but was seriously injured.

Initially, the authorities believed that it was a store robbery gone wrong. However, that changed after the D.C. sniper attacks began.

On October 20th, 2002, a federal agent contacted Montgomery Police Chief John Wilson and told him that a caller had advised the investigation team to take a closer look at the shooting on Zelda Road. Not long after, the evidence from Parker's case was tied to the attacks in Washington, D.C.

Although no one knew it at the time, this was one of the "preliminary" shootings by the D.C. snipers, John Allen Muhammad (41) and Lee Boyd Malvo (17).

That evening, the pair targeted Parker and Adams with a high-powered rifle while they were closing the store.

Parker died almost instantly after a bullet broke through her spinal cord and fragmented inside her body.

Adams was hit in the back of the lower head, leaving her with extensive injuries that required dozens of surgeries. She also suffered from PTSD and had to be fitted with a tracheostomy tube to help her breathe.

Adams later told the media that she didn't hear the bullet that nearly ended her life. Nor did she see the gunmen. As she lay on the ground, dazed and semi-conscious, she started to believe she had been struck by lightning.

Following the shooting, Malvo ran up to the two women and began emptying their purses.

As he was standing over their bodies, two police officers in a patrol car pulled up outside the liquor store, causing him to flee.

One officer chased Malvo on foot while the other tended to the victims.

The officer who chased Malvo said that they ran through the drainage ditch and then back towards the interstate. During the chase, a slow-moving blue sedan drove in front of him, obstructed his path, and then pulled away.

This incident slowed the officer down and gave Malvo enough time to escape. After losing sight of the shooter, the officer returned to the liquor store to help his partner.

Later, it emerged that the driver of the vehicle was Malvo's accomplice, John Allen Muhammad.