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Charged lousiana { November 1 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=sniper01&date=20021101&query=Caribbean+sniperhttp://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=sniper01&date=20021101&query=Caribbean+sniper
Nation & World: Friday, November 01, 2002
D.C. suspects now charged in Lousiana slaying
By Shannon McCaffrey and Sumana Chatterjee
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON — New murder charges were filed yesterday in Baton Rouge, La., against two Washington, D.C.-area sniper suspects after ballistics tests linked the pair to a bullet that killed a shopkeeper there Sept. 23.
Opening a new front in the pair's suspected cross-country killing spree, Baton Rouge Police Chief Pat Englade said the same Bushmaster XM-15 .223-caliber rifle that killed 10 and wounded three in the Washington area was used to gun down Hong Im Ballenger, 45, as she left the beauty shop where she worked. Ballenger was shot once in the head and her purse was stolen.
The Louisiana arrest warrant says Lee Boyd Malvo took the purse after Ballenger was shot.
Englade issued first-degree murder warrants for John Allen Muhammad, 41, and Malvo, 17. The investigation into the pair's possible involvement in other Baton Rouge crimes continued, Englade said.
Englade called the .223-caliber bullet "unusual," which was one reason police began checking for links between the sniper suspects and the Ballenger shooting. Receipts found in the suspects' 1990 Chevrolet Caprice also put them in Baton Rouge — Muhammad's hometown — Sept. 23, according to the arrest warrant.
Kwang Szuszka, Ballenger's sister, said Ballenger, a mother of three, was a Korean immigrant who married an American serviceman 22 years ago and came to the United States more than 18 years ago.
Muhammad grew up in Baton Rouge, and family members said he passed through last summer with Malvo.
A task force working on the recent serial killings of three Baton Rouge women also wants to obtain DNA evidence from Muhammad and Malvo. The two haven't been linked to those killings, Englade said.
Also yesterday, prosecutors in Prince George's County, Md., where a 13-year-old boy was wounded on his way to school Oct. 7, charged Muhammad and Malvo with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
In Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft said law-enforcement officials haven't ruled out that others may have been involved in the killings across the country or that the two suspects may be responsible for additional crimes.
The federal government earlier this week charged Muhammad with 20 criminal counts, six of which could carry the death penalty. Ashcroft will determine which jurisdiction prosecutes the case first. The core investigation spans five states and the District of Columbia. The two suspects are in federal custody.
Muhammad and Malvo were arrested early Oct. 24 at a Maryland rest stop where they were sleeping in their Caprice. The Bushmaster was found in the car. Ballistics tests showed that bullets taken from many of the sniper victims were fired from that rifle, police said.
The suspects have been charged in Maryland and Virginia for killings there. Both suspects face the death penalty in Virginia. Only Muhammad faces the death penalty in Maryland, because Malvo is under 18, and Maryland law rules out capital punishment for minors.
Federal officials also have linked the high-powered rifle to the killing of liquor-store clerk Claudine Parker, 52, on Sept. 21 in Montgomery, Ala. That shooting occurred two days before the Baton Rouge slaying. Muhammad and Malvo have been charged in connection with Parker's death. Parker and Kellie Adams, 24, were each shot from behind as they locked up the ABC Beverage Store. Adams survived.
Police in Tacoma earlier this week said they have tied the handgun that killed 21-year-old Keenya Clark of Tacoma to Muhammad and Malvo. The two also have been linked to a May shooting at Temple Beth El, Tacoma's only synagogue.
Police are checking other unsolved slayings around the nation for ties to the Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks, a task that took on renewed urgency yesterday as the crime spree extended to Louisiana.
The task of determining the spree's full scope is daunting.
Muhammad and Malvo have lived in or drifted through many states and spent time in the Caribbean.
"It's difficult because he could reasonably be a suspect in just about anything," said Stanton Samenow, a psychologist who evaluates violent criminals for the courts and wrote "Inside the Criminal Mind."
In addition to the Washington state cases, law-enforcement officers in Oregon, California, Arizona, Tennessee and Michigan are checking potentially related cases. Some include:
Michigan: Lansing police are checking on any connection to the shooting death of Bernita White at a zoo entrance in June 2001. She was shot by someone hiding behind a fence about 200 yards away. The capital-area sniper also fired at long range.
There is no known evidence that Muhammad and Malvo were in Michigan. However, a friend of Muhammad's, who helped buy the car reportedly used in the sniper case, was arrested in Michigan as a material witness.
California: Knowing Muhammad lived in Monterey, Calif., for about a year while in the military, the county Sheriff's Department scanned for any likely matches with all unsolved slayings during that time. It has come up empty so far, Deputy Bill Cassara said.
Oregon: Muhammad once served in the National Guard in Oregon, so State Police glanced back at several dozen sniping cases over the past 10 years without finding matches, spokesman Andy Olsen said.
At the sniper command center in Montgomery County, Md., detectives asked police agencies nationwide to scan for similar cases soon after the sniper arrests.
But what is similar? Should they look at all long-range sniper shootings, crimes with the same caliber rifle, fatal shootings, all homicides or even severe assaults? Departments are taking varying approaches. "You just kind of look at everything to check if it really fits," said Brooks Wilkins of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
About 40 percent of all slayings go unsolved.
Information from The Associated Press and The Washington Post is included in this report.
Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company
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