Justin Lafferty was a young spree killer who committed a string of sniper shootings to prevent the firing of Herman Capshaw, who kidnapped him when he was a baby and raised him since then.
History
In 1993, at the age of five, Justin was kidnapped from his parents Jake and Megan by Capshaw, a former U.S. Army marksman who had lost his wife and only son in a car accident and intended to raise Justin as if he were his own. For ten years, Capshaw raised Justin in an unhealthy environment of near-total co-dependence.
In 2003, Capshaw's boss, Charlie Rodriguez, was planning to fire him because he was a troublemaker. Justin decided that the only way to prevent this was to kill Rodriguez, and thus used Capshaw's sniper rifle to embark on a killing spree in Lower Manhattan, murdering Rodriguez and three others as a smokescreen. He also left fake taunting messages at crime scenes. When police made the connection between Rodriguez's murder and Capshaw, the latter was at first suspected of committing the shootings, but Justin was eventually determined to be the real killer. His kidnapping was also finally uncovered.
Following this discovery, Justin was institutionalized after his attorney managed to convince a jury that he had committed the shootings due to his symbiotic relationship with Capshaw. (L&O: "Sheltered")
Known Victims
- March 5, 2003:
- Amy Lane (shot through the neck)
- Larry Spelling (shot in the back of the head)
- Charlie Rodriguez (shot in the forehead)
- Hayley Sanders (shot in the chest)