- ROCKVILLE, Md. (Reuters)
- A Gulf War veteran and a teen-ager were arrested on Thursday in the sniper
case that has terrorized the Washington area, as investigators fanned out
across the country to search for evidence.
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- Government sources identified the men as former U.S.
soldier John Allen Muhammad, who served in the 1991 Gulf War, and John
Lee Malvo, 17. Media reports said Malvo was Muhammad's stepson.
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- The two were not immediately charged in the sniper case,
although Muhammad was charged with violating U.S. gun laws.
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- However, law enforcement officials were working on the
presumption that these were suspects in the shooting attacks that killed
10 people and injured three in Maryland, Virginia and the U.S. capital
since Oct. 2.
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- A rifle was found in the car where the two were arrested
in rural Maryland, a law enforcement source said. Media reports said the
rifle fired .223 caliber bullets, which were the same kind of ammunition
used on the sniper's victims.
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- The car was loaded onto a truck and moved to Montgomery
County, where the massive investigation into the shootings has been based.
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- "We're keeping our fingers crossed," a Justice
Department official said when asked if the men in custody were believed
to be the snipers. Another official said: "We are being very very
cautious about this. But it certainly looks good. We're optimistic."
-
- President Bush was briefed on the dramatic overnight
developments and was told "there are a lot of arrows pointing"
to them as responsible for the sniper attacks, according to an official
traveling with the president in North Carolina.
-
- But spokesman Ari Fleischer said in receiving the "latest
facts" in the case, the White House was given no conclusion.
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- Douglas Gansler, the state's attorney in Montgomery County,
told WTOP radio: "There's a strong feeling these people are related
to the sniper shootings."
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- Asked if he believed the sniper was still at large, Gansler
said, "No."
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- SEARCHING IN ALABAMA, WASHINGTON STATE
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- Law officers were pursuing leads in Alabama, where Malvo
was linked to a robbery and murder outside a liquor store on Sept. 21,
and in Washington state, near where Muhammad had been stationed during
his military career and where both detainees were known to be living earlier
this year.
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- Police Chief John Wilson of Montgomery, Alabama, said
there were "very good similarities" between a police sketch of
Malvo and the suspect in the killing in his city, but added that the bullet
used in Alabama was not the same .223 ammunition as those used in the sniper
spree.
-
- Federal officials issued a search warrant for an unspecified
target in Alabama, which they would not identify. They also were searching
hotels in Washington on the supposition that the suspects had been on the
move during the sniping siege.
-
- On Wednesday, FBI agents searched a property in Tacoma,
Washington state, going minutely over a grassy yard and carting away a
tree stump that may have been used for target practice. They also made
inquiries about the two men in the nearby city of Bellingham.
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- Bellingham Police Chief Randy Carroll said the two suspects
were "known to be together" in Bellingham, and Malvo had said
he was staying there to complete high school, but his earlier school transcripts
could not be found.
-
- "It appears that these people who have been taken
into custody are not acting with any group. ... It appears that they have
acted on their own," Carroll told a news conference.
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- Muhammad served in the Army under his previous name of
John Allen Williams, based at Fort Lewis in Washington state and Fort Ord,
California, before leaving in the mid-1990s after about 10 years.
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- THREE-WEEK REIGN OF TERROR
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- Government sources said he was not trained as a sniper,
but had been a mechanic. The sources, who asked not to be identified, declined
to discuss the circumstances under which he left the Army.
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- The two detainees were arrested around 3:30 a.m. EDT
in Maryland, about 60 miles northwest of Washington, as they slept in a
car that matched a description given out by police just hours earlier.
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- Law enforcement teams surrounded the car parked at a
rest stop along an interstate highway. The two were taken into custody
without incident.
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- The sniper or snipers appeared to strike at random for
three weeks, targeting people performing such ordinary tasks as pumping
gasoline, mowing a lawn or waiting for a bus. The victims were men, women
and one 13-year-old boy, who was critically injured outside his school.
All were felled with a single shot.
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- The suspected sniper communicated with authorities by
telephone, letter and by leaving a Tarot "Death" card with the
words "I am God" at the scene of the boy's shooting.
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- Late Wednesday Montgomery County Police Chief Charles
Moose responded to one communication in a televised briefing.
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- "You asked us to say 'We have caught the sniper
like a duck in a noose.' We understand that hearing us say this is important
to you," Moose said. "However we want you to know how difficult
it has been to understand what you want."
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- Police would not confirm media reports that the sniper
left at least two communications at the shooting scenes asking for $10
million to stop the slayings.
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