More charges laid against alleged US sniper

SERIAL sniper John Allen Muhammed was yesterday hit with federal charges punishable by the death penalty.

The 20-count complaint charges Muhammad, 41, with discharging a firearm as part of an extortion scheme in the deaths of seven people in Maryland and the wounding of three others, in Maryland and Virginia.

US Attorney Paul McNulty of Virginia said if a firearm is used to carry out violence in an extortion scheme, the crime is punishable by the federal death penalty.

The charging complaint did not name the other suspect, 17-year-old John Lee Malvo, because he is not an adult. A juvenile can be charged with a federal capital offence but cannot be executed.

Malvo and Muhammad already face murder charges in Virginia and Maryland in attacks that killed 10 and wounded three. Alabama has charged them in a killing outside a liquor store last month in Montgomery.

The question of whether federal indictments will be lodged in the case remains undecided, Mr McNulty said. He said a complaint is not the same as an indictment but "just a charging document that has the effect of further holding the defendants."

"But that charging document today would lay out some of the grounds for a federal case," Mr McNulty said.

It is also unknown whether a federal prosecution would begin before or after state prosecutions.

The federal charges were filed one day after authorities in Washington state said they had linked Mr Muhammad and Mr Malvo to the February shooting death of a 21-year-old woman whose aunt once worked for Mr Muhammad's auto repair business. They also said they believed the two fired shots at a synagogue.

Tacoma Washington Police Chief David Brame said a man contacted the FBI last week and told authorities he had allowed Mr Muhammad and Mr Malvo to borrow his weapons, including a .45-calibre semi-automatic handgun, while the pair stayed with him earlier this year.

Ballistics tests matched the weapons to slugs found at both shooting scenes.

"As a result, we now consider John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo as suspects in the Keenya Cook homicide," Mr Brame said. Authorities said there were no plans to charge the man who came forward.

Investigators recovered three handguns and two rifles from the man, including two allegedly used in the crimes, police said.

Ms Cook was shot in the face on February 16 when she opened the door to the house where she lived with her aunt, Isa Nichols.

Ms Nichols was a bookkeeper for Mr Muhammad's auto repair business in the 1990s. She became friends with Mr Muhammad and his then-wife Mildred, and sided with Mildred during that couple's bitter divorce and child-custody dispute.

Members of Cook's family wondered if Isa Nichols may have been the intended target and Ms Cook could have been shot by mistake when she opened the door.