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JARRATT, Va. -- Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad, who terrorized the Washington, D.C., region in a 2002 shooting spree that killed 10 people and wounded three others, was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. tonight in Virginia's execution chamber.

"The execution of John Allen Muhammad has been carried out under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia," said Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor to a crowd of hundreds of reporters from around the world.

The condemned in Virginia are given a chance to make a final statement and are generally allowed 10 to 15 seconds to speak before the lethal drugs are administered. Muhammad, 48, who had given a rambling, three-hour closing argument while representing himself at his 2006 trial in Montgomery County, entered the chamber without speaking a word.

After being strapped to the gurney, the fatal drugs were administered at 9:06 p.m. A minute later, he began to twitch, and by 9:08 p.m. he lay motionless, pool reporters who witnessed the execution said. At 9:11 p.m., a doctor officially pronounced Muhammad dead.

His body was being carried in a van to the medical examiner's office in Richmond, Va. His family plans to bury him in Baton Rouge, La.

On his final day, Muhammad declined a spiritual adviser.

Muhammad's final hours were spent in a cell next to the execution chamber. A vegetarian, Muhammad received a final meal chosen from the prison's daily menu, but requested that it not be disclosed. However, his standby attorney at his 2006 trial in Montgomery County, J. Wyndal Gordon of Baltimore, told reporters that Muhammad had a final meal of chicken and red sauce and strawberry spiral cake. Gordon said he had met with Muhammad and spoke with him at length.

"He even offered me some of his meal," Gordon said.

Gordon said Muhammad was in good spirits as he discussed his life and family, but remained adamant that he was wrongly convicted. "He stated he absolutely did not commit these crimes."

"His whole demeanor is fearless," Gordon said. "He's accepted the fact he's about to be assassinated because that's how he sees it. He's a martyr for everything wrong with the death penalty."

The Beltway sniper, who had chosen his victims at random, once had grandiose plans of receiving millions from the federal government to stop the killings and intended to use the funds to build a camp for boys to train them in killing, just as he had his then-teenage accomplice, Lee Malvo had testified at Muhammad's 2006 trial in Montgomery County.

Malvo provided chilling details on how Muhammad had pulled the trigger in nine of the 10 murders in the Washington, D.C., region. Six of the victims were shot and killed in Montgomery County.

‘‘You took me in your house and made me a monster," Malvo told Muhammad during cross examination when Muhammad represented himself at the Montgomery County trial.

Hours before the scheduled execution, curiosity seekers and others began lining up along a rural Virginia road leading to the prison. A steady rain was falling midafternoon.

"It affected so many people," said Pamela Clark, 39, of Emporia, Va., who organized a group of neighbors on the social networking Web site Facebook to attend to show support for the victims and their families.

"One girl said the other day, ‘I normally question the death penalty, but I do support it in this case.' That's how I feel," Clark said.

The U.S. Supreme Court and Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine rejected Muhammad's appeals this week, ensuring his execution.

Virginia gave Muhammad the death penalty after his 2003 trial for the slaying of Dean H. Meyers of Gaithersburg on Oct. 9, 2002. Meyers, the seventh victim of the snipers, was felled with a single bullet after filling his car with gas at a Sunoco station near Manassas, Va., on his way home from work.

Muhammad's conspirator, Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Muhammad had referred to Malvo as his son, although the two were not related.

In Virginia, condemned inmates are given the choice of lethal injection or electrocution. Those who do not state a preference die by lethal injection. Muhammad had not stated a preference, Traylor said.

Outside the prison in the afternoon, Sheron Norman, Muhammad's former sister-in-law, said he met with family, including a son, for several hours today.

"I'm here for my sister and my nephew because he loves his father," Norman said. "He got closure. He loves his father. You've got to understand, he loves his father. You can't turn love on and off."

Muhammad was a veteran of the Gulf War, and Norman said it was important for returning military personnel to get mental health treatment.

On the evening of Oct. 2, 2002, program analyst James D. Martin, 55, of Silver Spring, was the first gunned down in Montgomery County, as he walked across the parking lot of Shoppers Food Warehouse in Glenmont to buy groceries for a dinner party. Witnesses heard a loud bang, and he clutched his chest.

Martin called out, "Please help me," before he collapsed in the parking lot.

On the morning of Oct. 3, four more were killed as they went about their morning routines of mowing the grass or pumping gasoline.

The shots were fired by Muhammad or Malvo from a hole cut in the trunk of a Chevrolet Caprice.

The killing spree struck terror throughout the region for 23 days. During the manhunt, Muhammad and Malvo left notes and a Tarot card taunting police.

In addition to Martin, James L. "Sonny" Buchanan, 39, of Abingdon, Va.; Premkumar Walekar, 54, of Olney, a part-time taxi driver; Sarah Ramos, 34, of Silver Spring: Lori Ann Lewis Rivera, 25, of Silver Spring, and Ride On driver Conrad E. Johnson, 35, of Oxon Hill were killed in Montgomery County.

Police originally believed the snipers were traveling in a white box truck, prompting false starts to the investigation throughout the region.

The ordeal ended when the two were arrested at the Interstate 70 rest stop near Myersville.

In his testimony in Montgomery County, Malvo described how they scouted out their locations in advance and picked the victims at random. Muhammad wanted to kill six people a day for a month, but the pair were thwarted, because witnesses made it too risky, Malvo said.

Muhammad also had planned to plant bombs in schools, on school buses and in hospitals, Malvo said.

As she stood outside the prison in the afternoon with her 13-year-old daughter, Pamela Clark said of Muhammad, "This is his history."

The shooting spree caused so much fear in everyone, she said. Even as far south in Virginia where she lived, people were frightened when they pumped gas, she said.

"You didn't know if [the sniper] had decided to travel down I-95," she recalled.