September shooting linked to sniper suspects

Authorities have linked yet another shooting to the sniper suspects – the wounding of a Maryland store clerk more than two weeks before a string of attacks began terrorising the Washington area.

The two men have now been blamed for shooting 17 people, killing 12 and wounding five in Alabama, Louisiana, and around the nation’s capital.

No one was hit in another shooting that damaged a craft store window.

In the most recently linked shooting, a clerk was wounded outside a liquor store in Silver Spring, Maryland, on September 14.

Ballistics tests on a bullet fragment were inconclusive the link was based on witness accounts, similarity of circumstances and evidence putting the suspects’ vehicle in the area the day of the shooting, said Montgomery County police spokesman Derek Baliles.

A week after that shooting, authorities say John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, had moved on to Montgomery, Alabama, where they are accused of killing one woman and wounding another outside a liquor store.

Alabama authorities said on Thursday that the same rifle used in the sniper shootings, a .223-calibre Bushmaster, had been linked to the Montgomery case.

Two days later and 315 miles away, on September 23, the men allegedly shot and killed a woman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, outside a beauty supply store.

The men are also suspects in a February killing in the northwestern state of Washington.

In the Silver Spring shooting, Rupinder Oberoi, 22, was hit in the back outside the Hillandale Beer and Wine where he worked. He spent a week in the hospital before being released and is expected to fully recover.

In an interview last month, Oberoi said he thought he was a victim of the sniper as soon as he heard about the Washington-area shootings. “I thought, this is linked to me, the same kind of shooting, one shot and nobody saw anything ... people who are innocent, no motive.”

He told Fox News Channel on Friday that he knew the shooting would be connected sooner or later.

His father, Manmohan Oberoi, said his family was disappointed because they felt police had not aggressively investigated the shooting when it happened.

“If it was investigated well, maybe they would’ve had 18 precious days on their hands to catch the assailants before they struck again,” he said.

No charges have been filed in the shooting. Montgomery County State’s Attorney Douglas Gansler said they would add the incident to their list of charges if they get the jurisdiction.

Muhammad and Malvo were found sleeping in a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice when they were arrested on October 24. Authorities found the rifle in their car, which they say was modified so someone could fire unseen through a hole in the trunk.

They face multiple state and federal counts in the sniper spree in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C, as well as the deaths of two women in Alabama and Louisiana.