Posted on 10/24/2002 3:29:24 AM PDT by kattracks
FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- Two men wanted for questioning in the wave of deadly sniper attacks were arrested early Thursday after they were found sleeping in their car at a Maryland rest stop, authorities said.
The arrests came amid a flurry of activity in the investigation of the sniper attacks that have killed 10 people and wounded three others since Oct. 2. The break came after a nationwide alert was issued for their car, which was spotted by a motorist and an attendant at the rest stop.
Members of the sniper task force arrested the men without incident at 3:19 a.m. off I-70 in Frederick County, Md., about 50 miles northwest of the nation's capital, said Larry Scott, an agent for the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The men were arrested in a car that matched a description police gave at a midnight press briefing, said Maj. Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police.
"I don't know what their reaction was," Shipley said. "It wasn't an aggressive one. They were taken into custody without incident."
Shipley said the men were being transported to Montgomery County, where the investigation is based.
The witnesses at the rest stop called police at 1 a.m. after they spotted the men sleeping inside one of the cars sought in the sniper investigation.
Police responded and took the men into custody. Their car was a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice with New Jersey plates NDA-21Z.
Hours earlier, police issued an arrest warrant for John Allen Muhammad and an alert for the Caprice and another vehicle. Muhammad was wanted for questioning in the slayings and was being sought on a federal weapons charge, said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who is leading the investigation.
Muhammad was considered "armed and dangerous," Moose said.
But he cautioned that it shouldn't be assumed Muhammad, 42, is involved in any of the shootings that have stricken the Washington area since Oct. 2.
Muhammad was said to be traveling with a juvenile, identified by a law enforcement source as 17-year-old Lee Malvo. The relationship between Muhammad, who also goes by the name John Allen Williams, and the teen was not clear.
Several federal sources told the Seattle Times that Muhammad and Malvo may have been motivated by anti-American sentiments in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Both were known to speak sympathetically about the men who hijacked jetliners over Washington, New York and Pennsylvania, the sources said.
But neither man was believed to be associated with the al-Qaida terrorist network, sources said.
The Seattle Times reported that Muhammed was stationed at Fort Lewis in the 1980s, served in the Gulf War and was later stationed at Fort Ord, Calif. Malvo, who authorities said is a citizen of Jamaica, attended high school in Bellingham, Wash., last year.
The arrests came hours after authorities opened two new avenues in the investigation: FBI agents spent hours at a Tacoma, Wash., rental home, eventually carting away a tree stump from the yard and other potential evidence in a U-Haul truck.
And in Montgomery, Ala., Mayor Bobby Bright said federal authorities were investigating whether a fatal shooting there last month was linked to the sniper.
Bright said a caller to the sniper investigation tip line apparently claimed responsibility for the sniper shootings and the Montgomery shooting Sept. 21. One woman was killed and another wounded.
A law enforcement source told The (Baltimore) Sun that police found a piece of paper at the scene of the Montgomery shooting that bore Malvo's fingerprints. Police then traced Malvo to the Tacoma home, where he had been living with Williams, the paper said.
Late Wednesday night, Moose held a media briefing here he issued his latest cryptic message to the killer.
"You have indicated that you want us to do and say certain things. You've 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.
He also expressed frustration at the failure to make contact despite the sniper's repeated attempts through "notes, indirect messages and calls to other jurisdictions." He asked the sniper to call.
Several newspapers said Williams was formerly stationed at Fort Lewis, 15 miles from Tacoma. A Fort Lewis spokesman did not return a call for comment on whether Muhammad was stationed on the base.
Felix Strozier, who ran a karate school with Williams in 1997 and 1998, said Williams told him he had been in the Army but did not say where.
Pfc. Chris Waters, a Fort Lewis soldier who lives across the street from the Tacoma home, said he called police after hearing gunshots in the neighborhood nearly every day in January.
"It sounded like a high-powered rifle such as an M-16," he said. "Never more than three shots at a time. Pow. Pow. Pow."
Dean Resop, who lives a block away, said quite a few tenants had been in and out of the home.
"Makes you want to watch your neighbors closer," said Resop, who has lived in the area seven years.
FBI agents also visited Bellingham High School, 90 miles north of Seattle, on Wednesday. Mayor Mark Asmundson told the Bellingham Herald the agents were apparently seeking information on a male teenager who once attended the school and an older man. He said both left the area about nine months ago.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
hang them...
Quite possibly. Sounds like a serial killer and his mentor. SK's are often homosexual. Maybe similar to Henry Lee Lucas and his partner, Otis Toole.
"Jamaat Al Fuqra .......heard it here first?
'We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.' We understand that hearing us say this is important to youApparently, the police rabbit wasn't stranded on that Tacoma tree stump the way Muhammed thought it would be.
Guy kills someone, takes card, thinks he can use it?Did use it. The card had been used a few times in DC according to the reports I heard.
What strikes me is that this guy thought that a couple of million dollars could be deposited into a credit card account and that he would be able to somehow get it out. Not too sharp.
The Associated Press is lying by omission. This is RATHER important.
Congressman Billybob
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