Authorities linked a Sept. 14 shooting outside a Silver Spring liquor store to the two suspects in the string of deadly sniper attacks yesterday, putting the Army veteran and his teen-age companion in the Washington region nearly three weeks earlier than previously known.
The shooting outside Hillandale Beer and Wine wounded a 22-year-old clerk as he helped lock up the store and stretched the number of shooting episodes tied to the sniper suspects to 17, including 13 killed and five injured in five states and Washington, D.C. Authorities continue examining other unsolved crimes in retracing the trail of John Allen Muhammad, 41, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, as they zigzagged in recent months from the West Coast to the Washington Beltway, to the Gulf Coast and back to the nation's capital. On Thursday, police in Baton Rouge, La., filed murder charges against the two men in connection with a Sept. 23 killing of a beauty shop worker there.
Officer Derek Baliles, a police spokesman in Montgomery County, said that before the connection to the Silver Spring shooting, "as far as we knew they showed up [in the Washington region] on maybe the second of October."
"I would not be surprised if there are more links made in the area as they look carefully at the evidence that is building and providing a timeline," Baliles said.
Ballistic evidence comparing the Silver Spring shooting to the sniper attacks was ruled inconclusive weeks ago, but investigators pieced the case together after looking at "the similarity of circumstances, witness information and evidence that confirms the vehicle was in the Washington Metro area on the day of the shooting," Baliles said.
He declined to offer details of the evidence but said more cases are falling into place because the description of the two suspects is unique. Typically, criminal partners are close in age - "here, we have two skinny guys with quite an age difference, and that tends to stand out in people's memories," Baliles said.
No charges have been filed yet in the liquor store shooting.
Muhammad and Malvo have been in federal custody since their arrest Oct. 24, and Justice Department officials are expected to determine whether the men will stand trial first in U.S. District Court in Maryland or elsewhere.
State prosecutors in Virginia and Maryland have filed murder charges in the sniper slayings against Muhammad and Malvo and said they would try Malvo as an adult. The pair also face state murder charges in two fatal robberies - one on Sept. 21 in Montgomery, Ala., and the Sept. 23 killing in Baton Rouge.
They are also suspects in a February killing in Tacoma, Wash.
In Baltimore yesterday, a federal judge refused to open a scheduled detention hearing for Malvo, saying the need to protect the 17-year-old's rights outweighed public interest in watching the proceedings.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James K. Bredar said information of the "most sensitive, delicate and private nature" might be presented at the Monday hearing. Without elaboration, the judge said that "much of this information will be of an embarrassing nature" and its public disclosure now would be unfair.
Bredar did not rule out the possibility of eventually unsealing some portions of Malvo's juvenile proceedings. But he rejected a request by The Sun and three other news organizations to open Malvo's detention hearing to the public.
Malvo's status in the federal system - where he is identified only as "John Doe, Juvenile" - has been shrouded in secrecy. He was initially detained on a material witness warrant. But law enforcement sources[ have said Malvo was charged in connection with the sniper attacks this week under federal "juvenile delinquency" statutes.
All records and proceedings involving Malvo are sealed, and Justice Department officials and his court-appointed attorneys have refused to comment.
Muhammad was first arrested on an unrelated federal firearms violation but was charged this week in a 20-count federal criminal complaint in connection with the sniper slayings.
The three-week chain of attacks and manhunt that ended with the arrest of Muhammad and Malvo captured the nation's attention and drew intense publicity. An attorney for the news organizations seeking access to Malvo's federal juvenile proceedings argued yesterday that with so much already known about the young suspect and with so much public interest in the case, there was no reason to keep the hearings closed.
"If there's not a case for access here, it would be hard to imagine a case that would be more compelling," said Dane H. Butswinkas, a Washington attorney who appeared in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on behalf of the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Sun, and The Washington Post.
Joshua R. Treem, a Baltimore attorney appointed to represent Malvo, said in court that his client is not 18 and should have the full protections afforded to juvenile defendants in federal court. Court records show that Malvo will turn 18 in February.
"The government hasn't filed for a transfer hearing [to consider him an adult defendant], and at this point he is being treated as a juvenile," Treem said.
As a practical matter, Treem said, public concerns about Malvo's release also are not an issue. Even if a judge released Malvo from federal custody, the state prosecutors also seeking to try the teen-ager would quickly file detainers to hold him in their custody.
Authorities have not detailed Malvo's alleged role in the sniper attacks. ABC News has aired audio of a 911 call placed during the sniper investigation and identified the caller as Malvo.
"Good morning ... Don't say anything, just listen," said the caller, who had an apparent Jamaican accent. "We are the people that are causing the killing in your area. Look on the tarot card. It says, 'Call me God.' Do not release the threat."
In Montgomery, Ala., where a robbery case helped lead investigators to Muhammad and Malvo, questions remained yesterday about the weapons used in the Sept. 21 liquor store robbery and the number of people involved in the crime.
Police Chief John Wilson said yesterday that a stolen handgun has been found near the scene of the robbery that fits the make and model of a weapon believed to have been used in the crime, which left one woman dead and another injured, the Associated Press reported.
But investigators also think a rifle was used in the Montgomery shooting, and Wilson said early this week that ballistics tests showed that it was apparently the same Bushmaster XM-15 .223 caliber rifle used in the sniper attacks.
In Maryland, the victim in the Sept. 14 shooting in Silver Spring had been convinced for weeks that his case was related, even as firearms testing proved inconclusive. Authorities had the same suspicion.
"During the course of the investigation, we left open the possibility that this particular crime was related because of the way it was committed," Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler said last night.
Rupinder "Bennie" Oberoi, 22, of Linthicum was shot at about 10:15 on Sept. 14 as he helped lock up the shop on New Hampshire Avenue for the night. Like the sniper attacks that would follow the next month, there was a single shot, with no apparent motive and few clues left behind.
Oberoi survived, though he is still in some pain, his father said last night. The senior Oberoi said he was pleased to hear that the connection they suspected now is official.
"Otherwise, it kept us wondering all the time - if it was not them, then who was it?" Manmohen Oberoi said. "We knew it was the same thing. All the things pointed to the same thing."
911 call
The following is a transcript of a 911 call made by a man believed to be one of the sniper suspects. The recording was obtained by ABC News, which posted the audio and text on its Web site yesterday.
"Rockville city police ... this line is recorded."
"Good morning ... don't say anything, just listen. We are the people that are causing the killing in your area. Look on the tarot card. It says call me God. Do not release the threat. We have called you three times before trying to set up negotiations. We've gotten no response. People have died."
"Sir ... I need to report you to the Montgomery County hot line. We are not investigating the crime. Would you like the number?"