|
BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) - Two suspects in the Washington-area sniper shootings that left 10 people dead were charged on Thursday with murder in Louisiana after being linked by ballistics tests to a slaying in Baton Rouge last month, police said on Thursday. John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, already charged in six murders in Maryland where they remain in federal custody, and one in Virginia, were charged with the Sept. 23 murder of 45-year-old Hong Im Ballenger, Baton Rouge police chief Pat Englade said at a news conference. The victim was robbed of her purse and shot to death as she was about to get into her car after work. "Ballistics comparisons ... have now positively linked the .223 (caliber) bullet used to murder Mrs. Ballenger with the weapon used in several of the D.C.-area sniper killings," Englade said.
In Maryland, where Muhammad, a 41-year-old Gulf War Army veteran, and his companion Malvo, a 17-year-old Jamaican illegal immigrant, allegedly began a shooting spree on Oct. 2, Prince George's County officials added on Thursday to the growing list of charges piling up against them. Prince George's State Attorney Jack Johnson accused them of attempted first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for wounding a 13-year-old boy outside his school on Oct. 7. He said Malvo was charged as an adult, and that the case would go to court after they are tried for murder elsewhere. Federal and Maryland and Virginia state law enforcement officials are still arguing over where to try to pair first, and which jurisdiction has the best chance of imposing the death penalty if they are convicted. They are being held on multiple federal and state charges, some of which could bring the death penalty. In Louisiana, Englade said store receipts found in a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice in which the pair were arrested on Oct. 24 and which was allegedly rigged for shooting from inside, placed them in Baton Rouge on the date of the killing there. A Bushmaster .223 caliber semi-automatic rifle was found in the car, police said. STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION IN OTHER CRIMES Muhammad and Malvo were said by relatives to have visited Baton Rouge at the time of the Louisiana killing. Muhammad grew up in the Louisiana capital, they said. A week after Ballenger's death, the two are suspected of beginning three weeks of sniper attacks in the Washington area that killed 10 and wounded 13. Muhammad and Malvo are also suspects in a February murder in Tacoma, Washington, where they once lived. Englade said they were still under investigation for involvement in other Baton Rouge crimes. But he said there was no evidence linking them to the murders of three other Baton Rouge women in the past year that police have attributed to a possible serial killer. In Washington, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said police were still investigating whether the duo were linked to other crimes and whether they had other accomplices. "The investigation into the recent serial killings in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia is active and ongoing and continues to span into new jurisdictions across the country," he said in a statement. "We are not ruling out the possibility that other individuals may be involved or that the individuals currently in custody may have committed other criminal acts." ABC World News Tonight released an audio tape on Thursday allegedly of the sniper calling police in Maryland. "Good morning ... don't say anything just listen. We are the people that are causing the killing in your area. Look on the Tarot card it says call me God. Do not release the threat. We have called you three times before trying to set up negotiations. We've gotten no response. People have died." The caller hung up when the operator told him to call a sniper hotline. The Seattle Times reported on Thursday that Muhammad was suspected of selling fake identities and smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States to fund his travel. Muhammad may have used computer imaging software to forge documents, including the 22 different identities he possessed, along with stolen credit cards and fake passports, an Antiguan investigator on the case told the newspaper. In 2001, Muhammad was detained in Miami for possessing fake identification along with two Jamaican women who lacked proper papers, the newspaper said, but no charges were filed.
|
