- FREDERICK, Md. (Reuters)
- Police arrested two men at a highway rest stop in rural Maryland on Thursday,
in the first big break in a hunt for culprits in 10 sniper slayings which
have traumatized the suburbs around the nation's capital.
-
- Authorities announced little beyond the arrest of "two
individuals" found sleeping in a car.
-
- Government sources identified one of the men as former
U.S. soldier John Allen Muhammad, a Gulf War veteran. Media reports said
the other was John Lee Malvo, Muhammad's 17-year-old step-son.
-
- "We got our guys," one investigator was quoted
as saying by NBC-TV. Washington's WUSA-TV said the men "are considered
suspects, according to our sources."
-
- But a spokesman for Montgomery County, Maryland, said
it was too soon to tie the pair definitively to the sniper killings. "People
are jumping ahead. Give us time to do our job," he said, adding the
two were being questioned in Rockville, Maryland, headquarters of the sniper
task force.
-
- A U.S. government source said Muhammad served more than
a decade in the armed services and was an Army mechanic in a combat support
unit.
-
- "He was not a member of the elite ranger battalion
at Fort Lewis (near Tacoma, Washington state) and would not have received
any sniper training such as that given to special forces troops,"
the official told Reuters.
-
- The shootings, which began on Oct 2, terrorized the usually
tranquil Washington, D.C., suburbs. The sniper also critically wounded
three people, including a 13-year-old boy. A Tarot "Death" Card
was left at the scene of the shooting of the boy.
-
- Maryland State Police spokesman Maj. Greg Shipley said
a passing motorist had alerted authorities after noticing two men sleeping
in a car that matched a description given out a few hours earlier by the
task force investigating the seemingly random shootings which felled victims
with just one bullet.
-
- "Shortly after 3:30 this morning (EDT), a tactical
response team arrested two individuals from that vehicle who were sleeping
in the vehicle who were taken into custody without incident," Shipley
told a pre-dawn news conference.
-
- "Attempts to verify their identities are being made
right now," he said.
-
- WUSA-TV reported that a rifle had been found in the car.
Shipley could not say whether weapons had been found, adding that a federal
search warrant had been requested that would allow police to scour the
car.
-
- For three weeks the shooter has eluded a massive law
enforcement operation, dodging police dragnets set up with minutes of the
attacks. There has been no apparent motive behind the killings. The 10
dead and three wounded have included blacks and whites, men and women,
young and old.
-
- MASSIVE POLICE MANHUNT
-
- Police Chief Charles Moose, head of the sniper task force,
had announced late on Wednesday, only about four hours before the arrest,
that police were searching for Muhammad and an unidentified minor.
-
- "We believe that Mr. Muhammad may have information
material to our investigation," he had said.
-
- Moose also said police were looking for a burgundy or
blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice with New Jersey number plates.
-
- The two men were found sleeping in the car, with number
plates matching those given by the task force, along a highway in Frederick
County, Maryland, about 50 miles northwest of Washington.
-
- Shipley said one of the men was aged about 40, the other
about 20.
-
- Moose had said Muhammad was believed to be traveling
with an unidentified minor. Local media had said he was traveling with
his 17-year-old stepson.
-
- FBI agents had searched a property in Tacoma on Wednesday
with metal detectors and other equipment on Wednesday, and made inquiries
about two people who lived in Bellingham, another city in Washington state,
until about nine months ago.
-
- The Baltimore Sun newspaper reported on Thursday that
the tip that led police to Muhammad came from a Tacoma area phone.
-
- The newspaper said police had received a critical clue
from a caller who said he was the sniper. He told police they should "check
with the people in Montgomery" to prove he was serious.
-
- They investigated shootings in Montgomery, Alabama, and
found a shooting murder at which a fingerprint was found identified as
being from Muhammad's stepson, the Baltimore Sun said.
-
- CRYPTIC MESSAGES
-
- Moose had also issued a message to the sniper at his
news conference late on Wednesday.
-
- "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."
-
- Police have not confirmed media reports that the sniper
had left communications at least two of the shooting scenes asking for
$10 million to stop the slayings.
-
- Local and state police and federal agents had swooped
down to arrest the two men, after cordoning off the area and closing off
a seven-mile stretch of the normally busy highway for hours before dawn.
Shipley said the two were taken without incident.
-
- Moose had said Muhammad was charged with violations of
federal firearms laws not related to the sniper killings that started on
Oct. 2.
-
- "A strong word of caution. Do not assume that the
allegation, do not assume from this allegation, that John Allen Muhammad,
also known as John Allen Williams, is involved in any of the shootings
we are investigating," he said.
|