ROCKVILLE, Md. — Authorities late Wednesday said they are seeking a former Army soldier and a juvenile believed to be his teenage stepson in connection with the sniper shootings that have left 10 dead in a three-week rampage in the Washington area.
A federal arrest warrant was issued for John Allen Muhammad, also known as John Allen Williams, for federal firearms charges, said Montgomery County, Md. Police Chief Charles Moose. Williams, a black male 6’1″ tall, weighing 180 lbs., is believed to be traveling with a juvenile identified in several media reports as John Lee Malvo, a 17-year-old Jamaican citizen.
“We believe Mr. Muhammad may have information material to our investigation,” Moose said. “He should be considered armed and dangerous.”
In yet another cryptic message to the sniper, Moose said, “We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.” Moose said the sniper had insisted that he broadcast precisely that message.
He cautioned against concluding that Muhammad is the sniper.
Muhammad served in the U.S. Army at Fort Lewis, near the Tacoma, Wash., home where federal agents Wednesday searched a backyard and dug up a large tree stump that may have served as a target for shooting practice.
The base, home to several special forces units, conducts sniper training.
Authorities also executed a warrant at a paramilitary training facility outside Marion, Ala., and FBI agents visited Bellingham High School, 90 miles north of Seattle, on Wednesday.
The apparent break in the case came after a day of fast-moving developments in which the manhunt for the sniper spread to the West Coast. Federal agents descended on a Tacoma, Wash., rental home with metal detectors.
Agents carrying chainsaws and using heavy construction equipment uprooted a large tree stump and took it away, apparently to search for ammunition or other ballistic evidence. They also performed a grid search of the back yard with metal detectors.
FBI spokeswoman Melissa Mallon said the property owner consented to the search but would not say why authorities were there.
Neighbors said they believed authorities were focusing on a prior tenant who rented the home. He moved out in early spring.
Neighbor Christopher Waters, 23, stationed at Fort Lewis, said in January he heard gunshots about every other night for at least two weeks. He said they sounded like high-powered gunshots from a military rifle. The police investigated but nothing came of it, Waters said.
Officials at Fort Lewis, a U.S. Army base said federal officials had asked for their help, leading to speculation that the home’s prior occupant may have been a Fort Lewis soldier.
The dramatic developments occurred at the end of a day in which the sniper’s death toll rose to 10 and leaders of the manhunt defended themselves against allegations that they’d made grave missteps in communicating with the killer.
“Everything possible is being done in this case,” said Special Agent Michael Bouchard of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. “We’re all parents, and we’re certainly concerned about the safety of our kids.”
Citing unnamed law enforcement officials, two local newspapers reported that the sniper, in an angry letter to police seeking millions of dollars, wrote that he had tried to contact police six times but was “ignored.”
One official told The Washington Post that an FBI trainee didn’t realize an incoming tip-line call was from the sniper, and cut the conversation short. “Five people had to die” because of it, the sniper’s letter reportedly claimed.
According to several news reports, authorities spent so much time trying to collect forensic evidence from the letter, which was retrieved from Saturday night’s shooting site in Ashland, Va., that they missed a deadline the sniper had imposed.
The mistakes probably emboldened the shooter, said forensic scientist Brent Turvey, author of the book “Criminal Profiling.”
“If I’m the sniper, I’m thinking to myself the only way to communicate with these people is bodies,” Turvey said. In addition, “He feels he’s not going to get caught.”