Fitzgerald Landscaper Killed by Montgomery County Sniper

Fitzgerald Landscaper Killed by Montgomery County Sniper

James L. •Sonnyê Buchanan Jr. died doing a favor for an old customer, The Washington Post reported on October 4, 2002. Though he had been out of the landscaping business for months, he still drove from his new home in Virginia every week or so to trim the grass of a longtime Kensington customer he refused to disappoint.

He was operating the Lawn-Boy mower along a strip of grass on Huff Court near Fitzgerald Auto Mall when a sniper’s bullet caught him in the chest shortly after 7:30 yesterday [Oct. 3] morning.

Like Buchanan, 39, the other four victims in last weekês random violence were shot while conducting the mundane minutiae of life: buying groceries, pumping gas, vacuuming a van and resting on a bench outside a post office, said The Post.

The son of a veteran Montgomery County Police officer, Buchanan grew up in Gaithersburg and graduated from Gaithersburg High School and the University of Maryland. He loved plants and had made his living as a landscaper for many years. But his lifeês work was taking care of people, including a deep concern for the poor and underprivileged that led him to mentor children through the Washington Area Boys and Girls Clubs.

He would teach them how to plant, said Dottie Fitzgerald, president of Fitzgerald Buick-Pontiac-GMC in Rockville, and a longtime customer for whom he was cutting grass at the time he was shot.

He would help them plant a seed, nurture it and watch it grow, she told The Post. He would teach that if you do that with people, they will grow, too. He was doing that with them. I have no idea how many people Sonny touched.ê

EDITORS NOTE: GOT A CALL INTO DOTTIE FOR ADDITIONAL COMMENT.

ALSO, WILL FITZGERALD OR WANADA DO ANYTHING FOR THE FAMILY????????????