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作者：Anonymous 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
Two People Arrested in Sniper Investigation
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Police arrested John Allen Muhammad without incident this morning in Frederick County, Md. (AFP)
_____More Information_____
• Video: Chief Moose's late-night press conference
• Text: Chief Moose's Statement
_____Area Schools_____
• Lockdowns and Cancellations
_____Post Poll_____
• Complete Data
___ Police Tip Line ___
Law enforcement officials have set up a consolidated tip line to aid in their investigation. People with information about the sniper shootings are asked to call 1-888-324-9800 or send e-mail to [email protected] or send other correspondence to P.O. Box 7875 Gaithersburg, Md. 20898-7857.
The Montgomery County Reward Fund, established to encourage tips leading to the arrest and indictment of those involved in the region's deadly sniper attacks, has reached the county's goal of $500,000. Any more money collected will go to support the families of shooting victims.
• Find out how to donate to the reward and memorial funds.
_____Graphic_____
• Sniper Shootings: Interactive map shows details of victims and ballistics. (Flash 6)
_____Video_____
• Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose announces that ballistics linked the shooting of the bus driver to the sniper.
_____Recent Stories_____
• Children Anxious; Parents Feel Helpless (The Washington Post, Oct 24, 2002)
• For Area's Parents, An Agonizing Choice (The Washington Post, Oct 24, 2002)
• Half of Area Residents in Fear, Post Poll Finds (The Washington Post, Oct 24, 2002)
• Police Appeal to Immigrants For Help in Search for Sniper (The Washington Post, Oct 24, 2002)
• Too Spooked to Trick-or-Treat (The Washington Post, Oct 24, 2002)
• More Shootings Coverage
_____Photo Gallery_____
Sniper Shootings: The region's schools felt like fortresses as helicopters flew overhead and jittery parents walked their children to class.
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By Petula Dvorak, Christian Davenport and Sari Horwitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 24, 2002; 8:02 AM
Two people wanted for questioning in connection with the deadly sniper shootings were arrested without incident this morning at a rest stop in Frederick County, Md., law enforcement officials said.
The arrests came just hours after Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose announced that police wanted to question John Allen Muhammad, a former Army soldier once known as John Allen Williams. Moose said Muhammad had been linked to the case in a telephone communication last week from a man who police believe is the sniper, but he emphasized that Muhammad may not be directly involved in the shootings. Moose said that Muhammad might be with a juvenile.
Hours later, Muhammad and a teenager, identified as Lee Malvo, 17, were found sleeping at a rest stop off Interstate 70 in Frederick County, about 10 miles west of the city of Frederick and 60 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., a source said.
Major Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police, said that a motorist at the rest stop called 911 at 12:47 a.m. The caller was not identified but he lives in Maryland, Shipley said at a press conference about 5:15 a.m.
Maryland State Police sent at least a dozen troopers to the rest stop, which is less than a mile east of Frederick County's border with Washington County. The troopers set up a perimeter and did not approach the car, Shipley said, while the sniper task force was notified.
About 3:30 a.m., after members of the task force had arrived, several officers approached the car. A law enforcement source says they shattered two windows of the car.
"There was a lot of screaming and shouting," the source said, although it was unclear who was making the noise. "Very loud and prolonged screaming."
Shipley said the two were taken into custody without incident. "There was no resistance, there was no problem," he said, adding that police approached the car "very carefully, very quickly."
Shipley said authorities have not searched the car yet because they are seeking a federal search warrant and won't get any evidence from the vehicle until the warrant is obtained. The car remains at the rest area, and a class of trainees at the local police academy will search the area around that area this morning, Shipley said. Shipley would not confirm the identities of the two men taken into custody, simply describing them as black males, one about 40 and the other about 20.
It was not clear how long the two had been sleeping at the rest area, Shipley said. There were other cars in the area at the time, he said, but it was not clear how close they were to the men's car.
Early this morning, members of the task force were escorting the two men back to Montgomery County, officials said. Montgomery County police spokesman Derek Baliles said the men would be taken to an "undisclosed location," rather than to police headquarters, as people wanted for questioning in homicides typically are.
If the two are charged in connection with the sniper shootings, it would bring to a close a horrific series of shootings that have left 10 people dead, three injured and a region terrified since the shootings began on the evening of Oct. 2.
"What a break," a source said. But, the source cautioned, police were hoping that a search of the car would turn up key evidence.
"Let's hope there's something in the trunk," the source said. "We still need to find out that key piece of evidence."
The developments were the latest in a frenzy of activity over the last 12 hours which included a televised press briefing just before midnight in which Moose uttered a phrase mandated by the sniper: "We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose."
During that same briefing Moose said: "We believe that Mr. Muhammad may have information material to our investigation."
Moose described Muhammad, 41, as "armed and dangerous" and said he was wanted on a federal firearms charge. But Moose added "a strong word of caution: Do not assume from this allegation that John Allen Muhammad ... is involved in any of the shootings we are investigating."
The developments occurred on a day when the fatal shooting of a Montgomery County bus driver was ballistically linked to the sniper responsible for nine other killings in the Washington area. As children were shepherded to school by fearful parents yesterday, details emerged of a second letter in which the sniper threatened to harm children.
Police sources said yesterday that in one of a flurry of contacts ?including phone calls and two letters that made references to "we" and "us" ?the sniper made a number of demands for money and at least one curious request. Moose responded with a direct statement last night.
"We understand that you communicated with us by calling several different locations," Moose said. "Our inability to talk has been a concern for us, as it has been for you. You have indicated that you want us to do and say certain things. You asked us to say, 'We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.'
"We understand that hearing us say this is important to you. However, we want you to know how difficult it has been to understand what you want because you have chosen to use only notes, indirect messages and calls to other jurisdictions."
The duck reference apparently is drawn from a folk tale in which a boastful rabbit tries to catch a duck in a noose. The duck appears to be caught but flies off, dragging the rabbit along with him. The rabbit then tumbles into a tree stump, where he is stranded.
Moose declined to answer reporters' questions last night.
Police had put out a bulletin for a 1990 blue Chevrolet Caprice with the New Jersey license plate NDA21Z, which is registered to John Muhammad at an address in Camden, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.
The manhunt last night was the culmination of an unlikely sequence of events that began last week with a call to police, sources said. One source said the call came from a man believed to be the sniper, who claimed that he had committed a robbery and slaying in the South.
That admission ?in a conversation during which the man demanded to be taken seriously ?led police to an Alabama robbery, which in turn led them to a Tacoma, Wash., man.
"People feel good about this lead because it is the first time that the sniper tied himself to a specific event where a suspect has been identified," a police source said.
The Montgomery, Ala., Advertiser reported today that federal authorities were investigating a Sept. 21 liquor store shooting in which one woman died and another was wounded. Investigators said the weapon was not consistent with the .223-caliber rifle used by the sniper, the Advertiser said.
Muhammad, described by Moose as 6 feet 1 and 180 pounds, was identified as a former soldier at Fort Lewis, Wash., just south of Tacoma.
Muhammad's former wife lives in suburban Maryland, a law enforcement source said. A neighbor of the townhouse where the former wife is believed to live said last night that a woman from Tacoma and her three children moved in last year.
A team of federal agents combed a yard in Tacoma yesterday with metal detectors and hauled off a tree stump. At least one possible bullet fragment that was found in the tree stump, which was removed for analysis, a law enforcement source said.
The apparent shift of the probe to the West Coast was confirmed by commanders at Fort Lewis, an Army post just south of Tacoma, who said the FBI informed them that a man who recently left the Army after 15 years was being investigated in connection with the sniper case.
FBI agents began searching at 10:30 a.m. local time after approaching the Tacoma Police Department.
According to Tacoma police, about 15 agents worked throughout the day, at one point getting assistance from the police department's bomb squad. As of 4:30 p.m., the bomb squad was no longer involved. Tacoma police said they did not have a direct hand in the investigation but provided site security at the residence.
"The focus of the investigation has been outside of the house," said James Mattheis, a Tacoma police spokesman. "The focus has been on the yard."
A senior FBI official said the search was connected to the two individuals being sought by authorities in connection with the sniper shootings. "None of this is by accident," the official said.
Mike Bouchard, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and Moose confirmed earlier yesterday that Tuesday's slaying of bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, of Oxon Hill was linked ballistically to the other sniper killings.
Sources said a letter found near the site of Johnson's slaying was much like one found tacked to a tree in Ashland, Va., where the sniper shot and wounded a man Saturday.
Sources said the new letter was neatly written and reiterated a threat contained in the one left Saturday that "your children are not safe anywhere at any time."
The sources said Tuesday's note was shorter than Saturday's, which is believed to be about three pages. They said it contained the same level of hostility and another demand for money. "Apparently his anger level is off the charts," a law enforcement source said.
The first letter was sealed, wrapped in plastic and left tacked to a tree near the shooting of a 37-year-old Melbourne, Fla., man in the parking lot of a Ponderosa restaurant in Ashland, north of Richmond. The letter demanded $10 million and angrily accused police of mishandling calls the writer claimed to have made to police tip lines.
Moose, the chief spokesman for the sniper investigative task force, issued a series of statements to the sniper through the media, saying after the discovery of Tuesday's letter: "We have researched the option you stated and found that it is not possible electronically to comply in the manner you requested."
The statement refers to the sniper's demand that money be transferred to a stolen credit card, a law enforcement source said.
The FBI laboratory in Quantico, working in conjunction with the bureau's Critical Incident Response Group, has completed the analysis of the first letter, sources said. The lab has begun similar tests on the second letter, sources said.
FBI scientists failed to glean any usable forensic evidence, such as fingerprints, from the first letter, the sources said.
"They haven't gotten anything that's usable now, but that doesn't mean they haven't gotten anything," said one official.
The lack of such clues suggests to investigators that the sniper is meticulous in his activities and probably wears gloves when firing his weapon or writing letters to police.
"It's another indication that we are dealing with a very, very careful guy," a law enforcement official said.
As investigators shifted their efforts, most schools were open across the region yesterday, though with increased security and with activities moved indoors. Attendance was near normal, despite the sniper's threat to target more children, and parents and teachers tried to find ways to protect and reassure frightened youngsters.
Allen Flanigan, whose children attend an Alexandria elementary school, said: "Everyone is taking the necessary precautions, but you must balance the concern. You want to keep their routine as normal as possible."
President Bush called the sniper a "ruthless person."
"I'm worried about it," Bush said at the White House. "A lot of people are worried about it. We've got a lot of moms worried about it, fathers worried about it. We've got to do something about it, and we are."
Moose, the task force spokesman, appealed to hesitant members of the county's large immigrant community to come forward with any information about the sniper. He tried to reassure undocumented immigrants that police were not interested in their immigration status.
Sgt. Kim Chinn, a Prince William County police spokeswoman, asked witnesses to come forward in connection with the sniper's Oct. 9 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Sunoco station in the county.
"We think that there are possibly more witnesses out there, people who might have heard a gunshot and maybe haven't talked to investigators yet because they think the information they have is not important," she said at a Rockville briefing.
She asked that anyone who was in the area of Balls Ford Road and Route 234 between 8 and 8:30 p.m. that night to call the hotline, 888-324-9800, and mention the Prince William shooting.
As the sniper hunt went on yesterday, the ATF's Bouchard sought to reassure the public that progress was being made.
"Some things take longer than others," Bouchard said. "Just like an illness, some things don't respond to treatment right away. Some cases don't respond to our methods right away. We try new things. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer. We would have liked to have solved this by now. . .? It may take a little longer, but we're certainly confident that we're going to resolve this."
Two of the three people wounded by the sniper remained hospitalized last night.
The man who was shot in Ashland on Saturday underwent his third surgery yesterday and was in critical but stable condition at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in Richmond. The 13-year-old boy who was shot Oct. 7 outside a Bowie middle school remained in serious condition at Children's Hospital. The youth is "fighting back" from the shooting "but still has a very long way to go," his family said in a statement.
Yesterday, officials revealed that Maryland Army National Guard OH-58 scout helicopters had joined the hunt for the sniper.
Maj. Gen. James F. Fretterd, the adjutant general of Maryland, said two helicopters, equipped with sophisticated infrared sensors, have been flying from a military installation in Edgewood, Md. The helicopters are being flown by National Guard pilots and are carrying law enforcement agents, Fretterd said.
"We've been in the air monitoring that situation, trying to make sure the schools are safe," Fretterd said.
The helicopters are working in conjunction with Army surveillance aircraft that are now flying missions over the Washington area, officials said.
The Pentagon last week approved the use of surveillance aircraft, including Army RC-7 reconnaissance aircraft, to assist law enforcement agencies. The RC-7 is equipped with telescopic cameras that could be used to scan an area after a shooting and to track suspicious vehicles.
Staff writers Dan LeDuc, Dan Eggen and Michael Ruane contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
作者：Anonymous 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org |
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