FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — Two men wanted for questioning in the wave of deadly sniper attacks were arrested early Thursday after they were found sleeping in their car at a Maryland rest stop, authorities said.
The arrests raised hopes of a conclusion to the intensive and often frustrating investigation of the shootings that have killed 10 people and critically wounded three others since Oct. 2 in the Washington, D.C., area.
The men taken into custody were not immediately charged in the sniper attacks, but authorities made it clear the arrests were considered pivotal. A newspaper report said the men were motivated by anti-American bias.
President Bush was told that federal authorities were reasonably sure the case had been solved, a senior administration official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The arrests occurred hours after authorities descended on a home in Tacoma, Wash., believed to hold clues important to the investigation. They then issued a nationwide alert for the car, spotted by a motorist and an attendant at the rest stop.
Charles Moose, the Montgomery County police chief who is leading the investigation, had said John Allen Muhammad, 42, was being sought for questioning in the slayings and called him “armed and dangerous.” Muhammad was said to be traveling with a juvenile, identified by a law enforcement source as 17-year-old John Lee Malvo.
The key break, authorities said, was a phone call to the sniper task force tip line suggesting investigators check out a liquor store robbery in Alabama in which two employees were shot, one of them fatally.
The caller said to look at an incident in “Montgomery,” a law enforcement source told the AP, also on condition of anonymity. Investigators checking the tip matched it with the Sept. 21 robbery in Montgomery, Ala., where, according to the source, they found Malvo’s fingerprint.
Members of the sniper task force arrested the men without incident at 3:19 a.m. off I-70 in Frederick County, Md., about 50 miles northwest of the nation’s capital, said Larry Scott, an agent for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The men were arrested in a car that matched a description police gave at a midnight press briefing, said Maj. Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police.
“I don’t know what their reaction was,” Shipley said. “It wasn’t an aggressive one.”
The relationship between the teen and Muhammad, who also goes by the name John Allen Williams, was not clear, but several newspapers reported that Malvo is Muhammad’s stepson.
The law enforcement source told the AP that “I’m confident that these are indeed the people” sought in the killings.
“The evidence is all there and because of things we’ve received in the communications,” the source said. “It fits together with evidence they’ve collected in the last couple days.”
Several federal sources told The Seattle Times that Muhammad and Malvo may have been motivated by anti-American sentiments in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Times reported that Muhammad was stationed at Fort Lewis outside Tacoma in the 1980s, served in the Gulf War and was later stationed at Fort Ord, Calif. Malvo, who authorities said is a citizen of Jamaica, attended high school in Bellingham, Wash., last year.
Shipley said the men were being transported to Montgomery County, where the investigation is based.
The witnesses at the rest stop called police at 1 a.m. after they spotted the men sleeping inside one of the cars sought in the investigation — a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice.
Late Wednesday night, Moose held a media briefing where he issued his latest cryptic message in his ongoing dialogue with the sniper.
“You have indicated that you want us to do and say certain things. You’ve 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,” Moose said.
Muhammad’s ex-wife, Mildred, was being questioned by the FBI Wednesday, said Adele Moses, who identified herself as the woman’s sister. She said Mildred was living with her in Clinton, Md., southeast of Washington.
Associated Press writers Stephen Manning and Jesse J. Holland contributed to this report.
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