Naman Shrestha
In October 2002, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo sent terror down the spines of the residents of the Washington, DC, area as they claimed nearly a dozen random victims in a shooting spree. However, before their sniper attacks began, the duo attacked a restaurant owner named Paul LaRuffa and robbed him. The crimes of John and Lee are covered in a detailed manner in Investigation Discovery’s ‘Hunted by My Husband: The Untold Story of the DC Sniper,’ with the help of interviews with the officials involved in the investigation.
Paul LaRuffa’s Laptop and Money Were Stolen After the Attackers Shot Him
Born in the late 1940s, Paul LaRuffa grew up to own an Italian restaurant in Clinton, Maryland. On a seemingly regular night of September 5, 2002, the 55-year-old man locked up his restaurant and put his laptop in the backseat of his car. That’s when he was shot multiple times at close range by John Allen Muhammad and his 17-year-old accomplice, Lee Malvo. The bullets struck him in his spine, diaphragm, chest, and stomach. The duo then proceeded to steal his laptop and the bag of money containing around $3,500 before fleeing the scene. As soon as the authorities arrived at the scene, Paul was rushed to the hospital, where he recovered from his injuries after a nine-hour surgery.
In the following month, John and Lee carried out multiple sniper killings in the Washington, DC, area before getting arrested. The authorities found Paul’s laptop in their car, and it was found that the money they stole from him helped them fund their murder spree. Several years later, when asked if he would attend John’s execution on November 10, 2009, he said that he was not wasting another day of his life over the DC sniper, as it was enough to know that justice had been done.
Paul LaRuffa Has Become an Advocate For Youth Violence
Though it has been over two decades since Paul LaRuffa survived a horrifying ordeal, the physical and psychological scars remain. While the night still haunts him, he doesn’t let it linger on for long or affect the way he leads his life in any form. He has since become a staunch advocate for the judicial treatment of children. As a key member of Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, Paul has served as a leading voice in their fight for the ban on life without parole sentences for children. The survivor of youth violence has built a reputation for turning personal adversity into years of advocacy for change.
In 2021, his unwavering efforts significantly contributed to the passage of Maryland’s Juvenile Restoration Act. In a 2022 interview, Paul opened up about the incident that changed his life and how he has coped with it in the years that followed. In raw honesty, he admitted to still listening to the 911 recording from that night. He candidly expressed that the passage of 20 years doesn’t change the fact that the dispatcher’s promise in the recording, assuring him that he wouldn’t let him die, still brings him to tears. “If I had to die that night, I wasn’t afraid. I just didn’t want that to be my time. And I’m glad it wasn’t,” he said, reflecting on his miraculous recovery.
Through his healing journey, he has reclaimed his sense of safety and overcome the fear of snipers that once shadowed his life. While he takes immense pride in the work he has done with Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, Paul is still disheartened that the shooters used his hard-earned money to wreak havoc in town, alongside the fact that Malvo never apologized to him. Talking about it, he said, “I just feel he probably will be (released) someday, and I don’t know when that day is. But I do know it shouldn’t be now.”
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Paul LaRuffa Leads a Retired Life on a Farm in St. Mary’s County Today
As far as his professional life is concerned, it appears that Paul LaRuffa closed down the operations of his restaurant, DPL Enterprises Inc, known publicly as Margellina Restaurant, sometime in the late 2000s, possibly in 2008. He established the business in Clinton, Maryland, in May 1986 and was the President and Owner for 22 years, until April 2008. According to reports, a vape shop now occupies the site of the popular Italian food joint. Prior to becoming a successful restaurateur, the 1964 Xavier High School graduate served as a Consultant at System Development Corporation from 1973 to 1974. Following that, he assumed the role of Manager of Education and Training at Arbitron for 12 years, from June 1974 to May 1986.
Academically, he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from St. John’s University, which he obtained in 1968. On the personal front, Paul LaRuffa has retired after dedicating years to his professional commitments and personal pursuits. From what we can tell, he has fully embraced the phase of his life in Hollywood, Maryland. In the coastal community, the now-retired restaurant owner resides on a 15-acre farm wherein he tends to his horses. Interestingly, one of the horses is a “big flawed racehorse” whom he dubbed “Sniper Survivor.” While he has carried on from the incident and built a fulfilling life surrounded by a close-knit circle of people who love him dearly, Paul clarified that he would never be able to forget it.
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