Sniper suspect 'shot teen to anger police'

One of the two suspects in last year's Washington area sniper shootings told a prison guard that he shot a teenage boy to anger the police chief heading the investigation, the guard has told a court.

Joseph Stracke, a guard at a Baltimore federal prison, said at a preliminary hearing that Lee Boyd Malvo spoke proudly of shootings committed by him and fellow suspect John Allen Muhammad.

Stracke quoted Malvo as saying that he shot a student "to make Chief Moose upset, to make him emotional so he wouldn't think straight, and it worked".

Police Chief Charles Moose, of Montgomery County, Maryland, led the sniper investigation.

Stracke's conversations with Malvo were on October 25, the day after the sniper suspects were arrested while sleeping in a car at a Maryland highway rest stop.

Malvo, 18, and Muhammad, 42, have been linked to 20 shootings, including 13 deaths, in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Washington DC.

Malvo goes on trial on November 10 accused of killing FBI analyst Linda Franklin. Both could face the death penalty if convicted.