Mark Essex Navy ID

When Mark Essex was in the Navy, he said he wanted to become a dentist. Two years later he gunned down 19 people, including 10 police officers.

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Thirty years before a pair of serial snipers terrorized Washington, D.C., Mark Essex prowled the streets of New Orleans with a .44-caliber Magnum rifle. During a weeklong reign of terror, he launched a series of surprise attacks against the city's police department, its citizens, and its visitors.

Essex's rampage ended in the bloodiest shootout in New Orleans history and the deadliest day ever for its police department.

Map of Louisiana with New Orleans

 

As the events of that day were broadcast live on television, 12-year-old John Allen Williams, who would later change his name to John Allen Muhammad and become one of the beltway snipers, lived less than 70 miles away.