Phone call provided vital clue in US arrests

The two men arrested in connection with the Washington shootings were tracked down from a clue in one of the sniper's phone calls, according to reports.

John Muhammad, 41, aka John Williams, and his stepson Lee Malvo, 17, were arrested after they were found sleeping in their car at a rest stop in Maryland.

The initial tip that led the task force to investigate Williams came from someone in the Tacoma area who called police.

But a US newspaper today reported a breakthrough came in a recent phone call made by the sniper to authorities when he said in a garbled message that investigators should "take him seriously."

The sniper told police that they should "check with the people in Montgomery" or words to that effect, a law enforcement source said.

Police checked every recent shooting in Montgomery, Alabama, and found a double-shooting outside a liquor store there last month that involved .223-caliber ammunition - the same used by the sniper.

Police later found a piece of paper at the scene which allegedly had Malvo's fingerprint on it, according to sources quoted by the Sun.

Muhammad and Malvo lived together at a house in Tacoma, Washington, but are believed to have been travelling, staying at cheap hotels and homeless shelters.

Police and federal agents have searched the Tacoma house and its rear yard where they hauled off an uprooted tree and a nearby stump thought to have been used for target practice.