Murder charges filed against sniper suspects

Prosecutors in the state of Maryland filed the first murder charges in the 13 sniper attacks that terrorised the Washington area, and authorities today tracked down the co-owner of a blue Chevrolet Caprice in which the two suspects were arrested.

The man arrested was believed to havehelped the two suspects buy the car, which was registered in New Jersey. Authorities say a hole had been bored in the trunk from which the snipers may have fired on their unsuspecting victims.

Ten people were killed in the attacks and three were wounded during the three-week rampage.

FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said Nathaniel Osbourne was arrested in Flint, Michigan. No further details were immediately available.

In the Washington suburbs and into northern Virginia where the attacks had occurred, residents were returning to their shopping and everyday tasks with a sense of relief, while others mourned the death of the snipers’ final victim, a bus driver gunned down Tuesday.

“I don’t have to worry about walking outside and getting shot,” said Ryan Burditt, a student at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland, where a 13-year-old boy became one of only three of the sniper’s 13 victims to survive.

On Thursday, John Allen Muhammad, 41, and teenager John Lee Malvo, were arrested near Frederick, Maryland. Authorities also wanted to talk Osbourne and described him as a material witness.

Maryland authorities filed six first-degree murder counts on Friday against the Muhammad and Malvo covering the deaths in their area.

They said they would seek the death penalty against Muhammad. Malvo would be tried as an adult, but the death penalty could not be applied if his reported age of 17 is verified. Maryland law does not allow for the death penalty against people under age 18.

As the first charges in the case were announced, federal and state officials began wrangling over whose case would take precedence – and new details emerged about the investigation of the shooting spree.

Justice Department officials are still deciding whether to bring their own charges. One official said federal prosecutors could use the Hobbs Act, which allows the government to seek the death penalty in murders where killers try to extort money. Law enforcement sources have said two letters left behind in the sniper cases demanded 10 million dollars.

Earlier today, Alabama law enforcement officials filed murder charges against the two suspects in an off-licence robbery and fatal shooting on September 21 in Montgomery and said they would seek the death penalty. The police chief, John Wilson, said investigators believe Muhammad fired the shots.

Alabama and Virginia allow the death penalty for crimes committed at the age of 16 or older.

The men, arrested in Maryland, could be prosecuted later in Virginia and other jurisdictions. Police linked a rifle in their car to 11 of the shootings that spanned a swath of suburban communities in the Washington area.

Authorities were tipped off last summer that Muhammad might be dangerous. Law enforcement officials said the FBI in Washington state interviewed a witness who claimed Muhammad was trying to obtain a silencer for his gun and spoke of killing police officers.

FBI agents and local police had concerns about some aspects of the witness’ account and decided to treat the threat as a local issue of officer safety, the officials told The Associated Press news agency.

Authorities said emphatically that nothing they received in June or July from the witness, Harjee Singh, suggested Muhammad and Malvo would later cross the country and go on a random killing spree in the suburbs around the US capital as they are now suspected of doing.

The investigation also has shown how the suspects were hiding in plain sight.

According to the FBI, police in Baltimore approached Muhammad as he slept in his car on October 8. Muhammad told the officer he was travelling and police, looking for a white van, did not detain him. The New York Times reported there were two other times during the three-week terror spree the snipers’ car was also pulled over – and then released.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Edward Norris praised the officer who checked Muhammad’s identification and licence plate.