Man Arrested in Sniper Case

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Oct 26, 11:24 AM (ET)

By TOM HAYS

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - Maryland prosecutors filed the first murder charges in the 13 sniper attacks that have terrorized the Washington area, and authorities Saturday tracked down the co-owner of a blue Chevrolet Caprice in which the two suspects were arrested.

The man arrested Saturday was believed to have helped 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.

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

In the Washington suburbs and into Virginia where the attacks had occurred, residents were returning to their shopping and everyday tasks Saturday with a sense of relief, while others mourned the death of the snipers' final victim.

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

In Silver Spring, two dozen buses carrying transit workers and mourners joined a funeral procession for bus driver Conrad Johnson, the 35-year-old father gunned down Tuesday in the last of the sniper attacks.

Two days after Johnson's death, John Allen Muhammad, 41, and teenager John Lee Malvo, were arrested at a rest stop near Frederick. Authorities also wanted to talk Osbourne and described him as a material witness.

Maryland authorities filed six first-degree murder counts 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. Virginia and Alabama allow the death penalty for crimes committed at the age of 16 or older.

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, speaking on condition of anonymity, 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.

Earlier Friday, Alabama law enforcement officials filed murder charges against the two suspects in a liquor store robbery and fatal shooting Sept. 21 in Montgomery and said they would seek the death penalty. The police chief, John Wilson, said investigators believe Muhammad fired the shots.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas Gansler announced the Maryland murder charges after a meeting with prosecutors from jurisdictions where the killings took place. In all, 10 people were killed and three wounded in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Gansler said each of the jurisdictions has a vital interest in the case, but Montgomery County was the "community most affected and most impacted by the shootings."

One issue in play is how each differs on the death penalty. Virginia and Alabama may be more likely than Maryland to carry out executions.

The men, who were arrested Thursday at a Maryland rest stop, 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.

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 nation's capital as they are now suspected of doing.

The investigation also has shown how the suspects were hiding in plain sight during the three-week rampage.

According to the FBI, police in Baltimore approached Muhammad as he slept in his car Oct. 8. Muhammad told the officer he was traveling and police, looking for a white van, did not detain him. The New York Times reported Saturday 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 license tag.

"This is incredibly good police work by this officer and what it does - when this goes to trial - it prevents the defendant from saying: 'I was in Wyoming at the time,' because you have a police witness identifying this vehicle and this person in Baltimore city right in the middle of this murder spree," Norris told WBAL-TV.

As investigators proceeded with the case, joggers resumed their weekend runs and shopping centers were busy Saturday in Montgomery County.

"It's good that we can stop worrying about it," Ric Rodriguez said in Rockville as he and his wife stopped for coffee during their daily six-mile walk. They had avoided going outside whenever possible during the killings.

Danny Garrison, 26, was relieved that he could help his girlfriend move to a new house Saturday in Rockville without having to worry about getting shot.

"Life has definitely gotten back to normal," he said.

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AP Staff Writers Gene Johnson and John Solomon in Washington contributed to this story.

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-- Anonymous, October 26, 2002