Saturday, October 26, 2002

NEW YORK — A man wanted by authorities for questioning in the Beltway Sniper case was arrested without incident in Flint, Mich., the FBI said Saturday, as investigators continued to follow up on an array of leads in the case.

The 26-year-old New Jersey man co-owned the blue Caprice that police took into their possession when they arrested John Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, Thursday morning in connection with the case. The two men were arrested after police found them sleeping in the vehicle at a rest stop along I-70 near Frederick, Md.

Police say Osbourne is not a suspect but may be a material witness.

Meanwhile, more details are emerging about a letter police received from the Beltway Sniper after the shooting in Ashland, Va., on Saturday, Oct. 19. The letter, which contains several chilling threats, is likely to provide investigators with a wealth of clues on the case where shooters killed 10 people and injured 3 others in the Washington, D.C. region.

The three-page letter, published in full on The Washington Post Web site on Saturday, instructs police not to release the note to the press. The letter also expresses the sniper’s frustration at not being able to get through to police to "start negotiation," because of the "incompetence" of police answering the sniper tip line.

The letter also includes the phrase, "call me God," which was also written on a death tarot card found at the crime scene Oct. 7 after a 13-year-old boy was shot and wounded in Bowie, Md.

"If stopping the killing is more important than finding us now, then you will accept our demand," the note says, also instructing police to transfer $10 million into a Visa credit card account, later discovered to actually belong to a woman who reported that card stolen in California. The card was later used in Tacoma, Wash., where the two sniper suspects in custody once lived.

"If trying to catch us is more important, than prepare your body bags," the note continues, also including the phrase," our word is bond," which Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said in a later televised message to the snipers.

Authorities say the letter was written by John Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, the suspects currently in custody for the string of shootings over the past several weeks in the Washington, D.C. area.

Muhammad and Malvo will be charged with six counts of first-degree murder in Maryland, prosecutors said Friday. State Attorney Douglas Gansler said he will seek the death penalty for Muhammad, but not Malvo, because of his age. But they plan to try Malvo as an adult.

"We don’t feel the death penalty is appropriate for juveniles," Gansler said.

Virginia, however, will have the chance to sentence Malvo to death after his Maryland trial.

The two were also charged with capital murder in Montgomery, Ala., Friday in the deadly Sept. 21 shooting that left one woman dead and another injured during a robbery. Prosecutors there will seek the death penalty for both suspects.

"We want to send a very strong message to not only this community and this state but the country that this is not the kind of conduct, this is not what we expect of civilized society," Police Chief John Wilson said Friday. "We’re going to make an example of somebody."

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.

Meanwhile, the owner of a Tacoma, Wash., gun shop said federal agents are questioning him about the rifle used in the killing spree.

Brian Borgelt, owner of Bull’s Eye Shooter Supply, said it’s possible the rifle was bought at his store by Muhammad. Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are examining store records and interviewing employees to figure out if the .223 caliber Bushmaster rifle found in Muhammad’s car this week came from Borgelt’s store.

"Regardless of the circumstances surrounding it, it’s this hollow, empty feeling you can’t describe - no matter how remote a connection," Borgelt said. "It’s all of a sudden, going from swearing at this guy every day and then having some kind of affiliation, possibly."

The firearm reportedly was shipped last June from the Windam, Me., manufacturer to a distributor in Tacoma. Muhammad legally wouldn’t have been able to buy the gun at that time because his former wife had a restraining order against him.

Muhammad could have slipped through a background check, however, or bought the weapon through an intermediary source, such as a gun show. The rifle also could have been stolen.

Also in Tacoma, police are taking a new look at a February slaying after learning that Muhammad knew the family of the victim.

Keenya Cook, 21, was shot to death Feb. 16 when she opened the door of her home. Her boyfriend was questioned in the case but cleared, Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said Friday.

Cook's family recognized Muhammad from news photos after his arrest and called authorities, Mattheis said.

"His name had never surfaced in the investigation," Mattheis said.

A few days before Cook's shooting, on Feb. 12, Muhammad was ticketed for shoplifting $27 worth of meat and frozen foods from a Tacoma grocery store. Police suspected that Cook knew the person who shot her, because her family said she would not have opened the door to a stranger, Mattheis said.

But now that there’s a connection between Muhammad and the victim, police are looking again at the evidence.

Muhammad was in the Army at Fort Lewis near Tacoma off and on starting in 1985, and lived in Tacoma after he was honorably discharged from the Army in 1994.

"Every jurisdiction around here is looking at cold cases," Mattheis said.

Police in Redmond, east of Seattle, are looking into the unsolved shooting of a woman in late July, police spokeswoman Betsy Cable said.

Victoria Mardis, 49, was shot with a handgun at close range around 11 p.m. the night of July 26, Cable said. Police have no suspect or motive, and no specific reason for thinking Muhammad might be involved, Cable said.

The state attorney general's office is looking through its files of 5,048 homicides in Washington since 1981 -- 1,372 of them unsolved -- to see if any could be linked to Muhammad, spokesman Gary Larson said.

"We read the newspapers. We've taken a look at various things based on what we've read," Larson said.

He declined to say if any of the unsolved slayings were similar to the sniper slayings.

"Any results would be passed along to the appropriate law enforcement agency," Larson said.

In other news surrounding the sniper case, around 25 buses from several states left the Silver Spring Metro Station in Montgomery County, Md., Saturday as part of a funeral procession for victim Conrad Johnson. The buses are carrying transit employees and other area residents. Banners saying, "In honor of Conrad Johnson Montgomery County transit," are draped on several buses similar to the one Johnson was in when he was shot this Tuesday.

The buses are heading to Glendale First Baptist Church in Landover, where a wake is scheduled until noon. A funeral will follow.

-- Anonymous, October 26, 2002