Beltway Sniper Suspects in Court

Muhammad was charged with a federal firearm violation.

A gun found in the car at a rest stop where two sniper suspects were arrested is a ballistic match for the weapon used in the killings, sources said.

The sniper's three-week murder spree has apparently ended with the arrest of a former military marksman who received an expert badge with an M-16 rifle.
foxnews.com...

for some reason just a gut feeling i dont think this is the end of this... does anyone know what his motive was?

Well, he *had* been leaving extortion messages...

...But the part about the "anonymous tip" has me curious; I've had a theory (admittedly coming out of left-field) that some crooked person in a powerful position (read: Bush & his Bully Boys, IMO) had gotten the snipers started with either some kind of promised rewards or trail of manipulation...For the purpose of focusing public media & attention away from D.C. Once the crooked manipulator had finished his own crooked task, he had the "anonymous tip" lead to the snipers' capture.

SOP for a Machevelian conspirator...
I wonder how someone could find out if this theory is correct or not?

this will be in War on Terrorism, soon.
We�ll certainly be hearing more: if only to maintain the deluge of media hype about this case which has meant that anything else ahs been moved from the front page. Expect links to Al Quida and rifle-range expos�s.
They seem an unlikely pair: John Allen Muhammad 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, -the latter a Jamaican illegal �and one is staggered after the FBI�s performance at the time of 9-11 to see them so full of information on a pair of unknown ne�erdowell�s.
The charges so far are, it appears, rather vague: Malvo as a �material witness� to the sniper attacks �whatever that might mean, and one would imagine that the Feds had to be pretty sure of who, where and when before such a charge could stick and Muhammad on a firearms violation and a marital problem!
It�s odd that they were arrested in Mayland where, to the best of my knowledge, the moratorium means that they won�t be executed; but maybe they�ll also be charged for Virginia murders too.
It�s equally interesting that almost simultaneously the Brits announced that they�d arrested UbL�s number 1 honcho in London. This certainly ensures that Al Qaida could be brought into just about every US media headline.
All the statements I�ve read �and I heard the police chief �live� on BBC World this morning are somewhat indefinite: probably, almost certain etc.
Yes -we'll be hearing more.

whte van = blue Chevvy? Odd.
Also, "ballistics" evidence has been referred to, albeit vaguely.
Now I, like many others, grew up on TV cop shows where a bullet inevitably tells the whole life story of the shooter and an arrest is always made, followed by a conviction.
I believe taht in "real life" (for want of a better word in this context) it ain't necessarily so and that ballistics evidence is often inadequate.
It would be interesting if posters who knew something about firearms (as an Englishman -and a non-ex-serviceman I know very little.) could update the Board on technical ballistics matters as the plot unravels and thickens.

While I am certainly no "expert" I do have a pretty good understanding of ballistics.
In most shooting cases the best evidence would come from the slug (bullet) itself, the rifling of the barrel leaves score marks on the bullet as it passes through the barrel and these score marks are about as accurate as a fingerprint.
Unfortunately, this is not one of the "most". This was done with a high powered rifle and since the muzzle energy is around 1100 ft/lbs. from a standard .223 round (opposed to about 110 ft/lbs from a .45 handgun) the slug has a tendency of shattering on contact. Think of getting a fingerprint from a thumb that just went through a food processor...
In this matter they are left with "casing marks" This is still mostly accutate but not quite as good as a slug match. When a gun (especially semi-auto) is fired the shell is forcefully removed from the breach at high speed and the brass will be scratched by both the ejection hook and at the point where the forward most tip of the shell contacts the inside of the bore where the rifling begins.
In addition the precice strike angle and depth of the firing pin dent left in the primer cap is quite unique. Now you can match the angle difference between the ejector hook mark , firing pin "dent" and where the rifling marks on the front end match up.

All I can think of right now....hope that helps some