Arrest warrant issued in search for sniper

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Police hunting the serial sniper issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for a 42-year-old man they believe has information about the string of terrifying shootings that have left 10 people dead in the Washington suburbs.

Montgomery County police chief Charles Moose said the man, John Allen Muhammad, should be considered "armed and dangerous" and that he was being sought on a federal weapons charge.

He also cautioned that the public should not assume Muhammad is involved in any of the shootings that have stricken the Washington area since Oct. 2.

Moose identified Muhammad as a black male who also goes by the name John Allen Williams. He also said a juvenile may be accompanying Muhammad.

He did not identify the juvenile, but a law enforcement source identified him as 17-year-old Lee Malvo.

A U.S. official in Washington said authorities were looking for two "people of interest," including one who was formerly connected to Fort Lewis, an Army base south of Tacoma, Wash., that provides some of the most intense sniper training in the U.S. military.

A Fort Lewis spokesman said the FBI had asked for help from the base but could say nothing else.

Moose also issued another cryptic message to the sniper:

"You asked us to say 'We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.' We understand that hearing us say that is important to you,"' Moose said. "Let's talk directly. We have an answer for you about your option. We are waiting for you to contact us."

The announcement came hours after the investigation jumped across the country. FBI agents converged on a rental home in Tacoma with metal detectors and chain saws, carting away a tree stump from the yard and other potential evidence in a U-Haul truck.

The FBI agents, acting on information from the sniper task force, were seeking evidence related to ammunition, a senior law enforcement official in Washington said on condition of anonymity.

FBI agents also visited Bellingham High School, 90 miles north of Seattle, on Wednesday. Mayor Mark Asmundson told the Bellingham Herald the agents were apparently seeking information on a male teenager who once attended the school and on an older man. He said both left the area about nine months ago.

FBI spokeswoman Melissa Mallon said the search was consented to by the property owner, but refused to say why agents were there.

"There's no immediate danger to anyone in this neighborhood," she said.

The back yard was divided into grids, and agents swept metal detectors back and forth over the ground. Other crews used chain saws to remove a stump from the yard and load it onto a truck; a source said the stump would be returned to Washington, D.C., for analysis.

Pfc. Chris Waters, a Fort Lewis private who lives across the street from the home, said he called police after hearing gunshots in the neighborhood nearly every day in January.

"It sounded like a high-powered rifle such as an M-16," he said. "Never more than three shots at a time. Pow. Pow. Pow."

Dean Resop, who lives a block away, said "quite a few tenants" had been in and out of the home.

"Makes you want to watch your neighbors closer," said Resop, who has lived in the area seven years.

More than 2,000 miles away, worried parents sent their children off to schools across the Washington area with extra-tight hugs, defying the sniper's warning that children are not safe "anywhere, at any time."

Thousands of others kept their kids at home.

As expected, police said ballistics and other evidence had confirmed that the bus driver shot to death on Tuesday was the sniper's 13th victim in the three-week rampage.

Investigators waited three days to reveal the threat against children, which was contained in a letter found after a shooting Saturday in Ashland, Va.

Michael Bouchard of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms insisted vital information was not being withheld.

"We're all parents and are certainly concerned about the safety of our kids and of our co-workers," he said. He said if information is released too early, "it inhibits our ability to do the job we need to be doing."

For the first time in three days, Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose did not issue a public statement to the sniper. Earlier this week, he implored the sniper to contact authorities and continue a dialogue, and he suggested police were having trouble complying with undisclosed demands.

The latest message believed to be from the killer was a letter found not far from where bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, was shot Tuesday, two law enforcement sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The message reportedly demands $10 million -- the same request sources say was made in Saturday's letter.

Schools across the region reported below-average attendance Wednesday.

"I'm not afraid of the sniper," said 17-year-old Heather Willson, a senior at Albert Einstein High School in Montgomery County. "I mean, I don't see any reason why he's going to change his tactics now and come inside and start shooting up students."

Schools in the Richmond, Va., area opened Wednesday for the first time this week, but attendance was lighter than usual. Kim Arthur decided to walk 8-year-old son Stephen to John M. Gandy Elementary School in nearby Ashland.

"We can't keep our kids from doing what they usually do," Arthur said. "That would scare them even more."

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Associated Press writers Curt Anderson, Allen G. Breed and John Solomon contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Montgomery County police: http://www.co.mo.md.us

FBI: http://www.fbi.gov