Sniper planned to murder ex-wife

INVESTIGATORS are becoming increasingly convinced Washington sniper John Allen Muhammad went on his rampage because he planned to murder his former wife in what would appear to be a random killing.

Muhammad's second ex, Mildred Green, lives in Clinton, Maryland, 15 miles southeast of Washington which is why police believe he chose the capital and its suburbs as his killing ground, the New York Post said.

They believe he planned to terrorise the area with random sniper attacks, and then shoot Green.

Police investigators told the newspaper they have all but eliminated terrorist ties or political ideologies as a motive, and believe the rampage was sparked by Muhammad's increasing anger at Green after their marriage failed and she won custody of their three children.

Meanwhile authorities in Louisiana have charged the two sniper suspects with another murder.

Officials in Alabama also said they had also definitively linked the two men to a murder there.

John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, are now charged with a month-long series of killings stretching from the Gulf Coast to the suburbs of the nation's capital.

The two suspects face multiple state and federal counts in the Alabama and Louisiana cases, as well as the sniper spree that left 10 people dead and three others wounded in Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC.

They are also suspects in a February killing in Washington state.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Pat Englade issued first-degree murder warrants for Muhammad and Malvo after ballistics tests matched the rifle used in the sniper shootings to a September 23 killing of Hong Im Ballenger, 45 in Baton Rouge, the Louisiana capital.

Ballenger died from a single shot to the head.

According to the arrest warrant, police believe Muhammad shot the woman and Malvo allegedly stole her purse and fled.