By NILES LATHEM, VINCENT MORRIS and MARSHA KRANESOctober 25, 2002
The terror is over.
Accused Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad is in custody and refusing to talk, task-force investigators told The Post.
His teenage sidekick - and suspected letter-writer - John Lee Malvo is also keeping mum, sources said.
Ballistics tests have now linked 11 of the 13 shootings to Muhammad's rifle, a semiautomatic Bushmaster XM-15 - similar to an M-16 and known as the poor man's sniper rifle.
Cops said other evidence links the duo to the other two shootings in the case.
The sickening spree of attacks left 10 dead, three wounded and millions terrified.
Malvo, a 17-year-old Jamaican citizen who is in the United States illegally, was arraigned as a material witness yesterday afternoon at a closed-door hearing in Baltimore.
He is not related to Muhammad - a 41-year-old Gulf War Army veteran and recognized marksman - although he often introduces himself as Muhammad's stepson.
Muhammad was arraigned last night in Baltimore on a gun charge. He appeared subdued, but sat like a soldier - and when his name was called, he snapped to attention, ramrod straight.
When asked if he knew why he was in court, he replied: "I know where I'm at. I know why I'm here."
Prosecutors haven't yet decided which jurisdiction gets first crack at the accused killers.
Muhammad's three-week reign of terror ended at 3:30 a.m. yesterday as he dozed at a highway rest stop, cops said. He was either unaware or unconcerned that an "armed and dangerous" all-points bulletin had been issued for him and his car, a blue Chevy Caprice with New Jersey plates. Malvo was with him in the car.
A source said there was a lot of yelling when cops nabbed them. The rifle was found in the Caprice, along with a scope, bipod and "sniper's platform."
Task-force cops had rushed to the I-70 rest stop in Middletown, Md. - 50 miles from Washington - shortly after midnight, when a motorist spotted the car and called 911.
Sources said Muhammad's car - purchased at Sure Shot Auto Sales in Trenton - had been modified to permit a gunman to lie down and fire unseen from the back seat by slightly opening the trunk.
The arrests came after three days of frenzied leg work by the task force - and several near misses.
On Oct. 8, cops found Muhammad asleep at the wheel of the Caprice on a Baltimore side street but let him go. That same day, a Montgomery County cop spotted the car and entered the plate into a computer.
But the noose began to tighten Monday when cops got a hot-line tip from a man in Tacoma, Wash., who identified himself as a friend of Muhammad and Malvo, and said one of them had told him details about one of the Maryland sniper attacks that only the shooter would have known.
The caller also mentioned a fatal Alabama robbery. The tipster described the two as "transients" who used to fire guns outside their home in a densely populated area of Tacoma.
Cops were investigating the call when they were contacted by the suspected sniper, who mentioned the Alabama incident.
Task-force members contacted cops in Montgomery, Ala., and determined that the two phone calls were about a Sept. 21 liquor-store holdup in which a woman was shot to death.
Alabama cops also provided crime-scene evidence - including a fingerprint from a magazine about guns. The task force traced the print to Malvo, who has a juvenile record.
That led police to Bellingham, Wash., where Malvo attended high school until about nine months ago.
Cops also had a license-plate number, and the description of a Caprice seen at the scene of one of the earlier sniper attacks - in Washington, D.C.
That matched a car registered to Muhammad at a Camden, N.J., address.
Meanwhile, FBI agents in Tacoma went to Bellingham HS to get a sample of Malvo's handwriting - which officials said appears to match writing in the $10 million ransom letters left by the sniper after his last two attacks.
U.S. marshals then did some electronic surveillance of pay and cell phones used by Malvo's friends in the area. By Tuesday, that eavesdropping led them back to the D.C. area, and a home in Clinton, Md.
The home - which belongs to Muhammad's second wife, Mildred, and her sister - was put under surveillance.
Cops became certain they were on the right trail on Wednesday afternoon, when they traced a bank-account number given in the second letter to cops as an option for depositing the $10 million. The account was in Jamaica, and linked to Malvo.
At the same time, FBI agents and local cops in Tacoma headed for the house in which Muhammad and Malvo had been living.
Using metal detectors, they combed the yard for shell casings left behind during their target-practice sessions, and they cut down and hauled off a tree stump believed to contain shell fragments. That done, they got a warrant for Muhammad's arrest on federal firearms charges.
At midnight, back at sniper task force headquarters in Rockville, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose held a dramatic press briefing at which he announced that Muhammad was being sought and urged the sniper to resume his dialogue with police.
Moose got a congratulatory call last night from President Bush.
Meanwhile, The Post has learned the killers were also in contact with a Roman Catholic priest in Ashland, Va., whom they tried to use as a go-between with cops. A source said the duo admitted their crimes to the priest.
The pair also told the priest their secret code for communiqués with cops - five stars, the name of a Jamaican rap group that sings a song called "Word is Bond." Moose used the phrase Wednesday night.
Sources said Moose intentionally made it appear that Muhammad and the sniper were different people to make the killer feel secure while cops continued pursuing their leads, and hopefully keep him from ending his murderous spree in a final bloodbath.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and William J. Gorta in New York, Dan Mangan in Rockville, Md., Adam Miller in Camden, N.J., and Brian Blomquist in Washington, D.C.
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