The station is closest to the rest area where D.C. snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were apprehended.

It's usually pretty slow, he said, a customer coming in only every 10 or 15 minutes or so. It was slow Oct. 24, 2002. An ordinary night, until a man arrived in a Jeep Grand Cherokee, acting strangely.

"He took a rifle out of the back of his truck and put in the front seat, and I called 911," Byrum recalled.

He didn't know it at the time, but the man was an officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Soon enough, Byrum saw officers from the Frederick County Sheriff's Office and Maryland State Police pull into McDonald's and Burger King next door. Other men pulled up in black SUVs. They put on flak jackets that were marked FBI and U.S. Marshal on the back.

"Then somebody said they saw a helicopter over McDonald's and another one over Burger King," Byrum recalled, "And I thought, 'What the hell is going on here?'"

Byrum started getting calls from reporters asking for directions to the rest area. Police had apparently zeroed in on the D.C. sniper, linked to killing 10 people in the metro area over a terrifying three weeks.

"The case sort of broke all at once," said David Reichenbaugh, a retired lieutenant and former operations commander of the Criminal Intelligence Division of the Maryland State Police, in a story in The Frederick News-Post marking the fifth anniversary of the capture.

When officials got Muhammad's New Jersey license plate number, fliers were printed immediately. Reichenbaugh decided to meet with a trooper from the Frederick barrack at Francis Scott Key Mall to hand him fliers to pass out.

He never made it there.

As he was crossing the Montgomery County line into Frederick County, he got a call that Muhammad's Chevrolet Caprice had been seen at a rest area along I-70 near Myersville -- about 20 miles away.

"I had that police car going as fast as it could go," Reichenbaugh said.

It took him about six minutes to reach the rest area, and as ranking trooper, Reichenbaugh assumed command. He issued orders to send every available trooper and sheriff's deputy.

At his word, the rest area was quietly evacuated, tractor-trailers and law enforcement vehicles blocked the entrance and exit, I-70 was shut down in both directions.

The airspace around the area was closed by the U.S. Secret Service. Police dogs and handlers were placed in the I-70 median and other locations.

In the end, the suspects were arrested without incident.

Paul Leatherman, a Myersville councilman at the time, awoke to the sound of helicopters several hundred feet over his home and ran outside in his bathrobe, carrying his shotgun.

"I didn't know what was going on," Leatherman said. "You get things happening off Route 70 from time to time. Then I saw the lights on at the fire hall and threw the shotgun back inside the house, and went up there to see what was going on."

Kevin Self, also a Myersville councilman at the time, said he later heard reports that Muhammad's car had been seen following a school bus in the Ashley Hills development earlier that day.

Mark Hinkle, a volunteer firefighter, heard the same reports.

"The fire chief actually called me at the house that night and told me I'd be waking up to helicopters, and at first we didn't know it was the sniper," Hinkle said. "Myersville was shut down the next day, and early that morning I was watching CNN and all sorts of news helicopters in the air."

Hinkle said he'd told people previously that if the D.C. sniper ever came to Myersville , "he'd be caught."

"People in Myersville are watchful, they're protective of each of each other and keep their eyes open," Hinkle said.

But it was Whitney Donahue of Greencastle, Pa., a supermarket refrigeration specialist, who spotted the suspects' car. Returning home from work, he'd pulled into the rest area and was the first to make a nerve-racking call to police.

Hinkle said he's been following news of Muhammad's upcoming execution in Virginia, scheduled for Nov. 10. By coincidence, his cousin, George Hinkle, serves as warden at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va., where Muhammad is scheduled to die.

"There have been some e-mails going back and forth, and I am sure he's under a lot of stress," Hinkle said of his cousin. "It's not an easy thing. No matter how heinous the crime, you are still taking a man's life.

"I don't know if that will bring closure to the people, the families, who were directly affected or not," Hinkle continued. "I would let that up to them to decide. I imagine it will for some, it won't for others."

Post your comments » Round 2: Snow expected to fall today, Wednesday Fast on the heels of the largest 24-hour snowfall to hit the Frederick County since 1983, meteorologists are predicting another round of heavy snow and wind to hit today. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning Monday afternoon for the area, including Frederick County, and said 10 to 20 inches of snow is possible by Wednesday night. Weather-related closings, delays A list follows of weather-related closings and cancellations for this week. Fire and police blotter Police search for robber School closures cause makeup schedule revision Even though Frederick County Public Schools are closed today -- using the sixth snow day this school year -- the school system will not hold school on the Monday Presidents Day holiday as the first scheduled snow makeup day. Crowds pay respect to fallen marine Even U.S. Marines couldn't hold back tears Monday at the viewing of their colleague, Sgt. David Smith. The procession to the Frederick Christian Fellowship Church was led by Frederick County Sheriff's deputies. Dressed in full military regalia, Marines carried Smith's casket into the church followed by family members as more Marines stood at attention.