- Reuters Law enforcement officers search the car which John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo were in when police arrested them Thursday.
Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
PROSECUTORS in Montgomery County, Maryland in the United States last Friday charged sniper suspects, John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old Jamaican, John Lee Malvo with six counts of first-degree murder.
This was the latest in what has been a trying event for local acquaintances and relatives of John Lee, also known as Lee Boyd Malvo, who has been implicated along with Muhammad in the deadly sniper shootings which terrorised the Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC area in the United States for three weeks.
The sniper shootings claimed 10 lives and left three people injured.
Telephones belonging to Leslie and Rohan Malvo, Lee Boyd's father and half-brother, have been ringing since last Thursday when Muhammad and John Lee Malvo were arrested by police at a rest stop 50 miles north-west of Washington. The trunk of the car in which they were travelling was outfitted with what has been described by international media as a 'sniper's nest'.
Local and international media continued hounding local relatives Friday, digging into the background of Malvo, who was described as the "adopted" stepson of Muhammad, a U.S. army veteran and the main sniper suspect.
The media frenzy heightened Friday when the Alabama police also announced that they will be seeking the death penalty for Malvo and Muhammad in connection with the killing of a woman in Montgomery, Alabama.
According to international media reports, the shooting started on September 21 at the Alabama Beverage Control Store. An employee, Claudine Parker, was killed while another, Kelli Adams, was wounded.
The Alabama police stated that murder warrants were being signed for both suspects in a killing, which took place during a robbery attempt at a liquor store. Malvo, police said, would be tried as an adult.
On Friday, relatives began showing the stress of being in the spotlight. Rohan Malvo abandoned his cellular telephone for several hours on Friday, telling friends not to reveal his whereabouts and that he was tired of taking telephone calls. Lee Boyd Malvo's father also turned his telephone off.
When he finally reclaimed and answered the telephone in mid-afternoon, an obviously upset Rohan Malvo insisted that he and his father were up for no more talking for the time being.
"I'm tired of talking. I have been talking all day and right now I'm thirsty and not even a bottle drink I have in my pocket. Everybody wants to hear but nobody say, alright see something here. I have a family who's looking for me to carry in something," the self-employed carpenter and joiner complained Friday.
"Whatever happened over there (in the U.S.), I'm sorry for it but right now, everybody has been calling me and I keep on talking and my mouth is tired and I want a soft drink and I don't have a dollar to buy it because you know what ah gwaan. I have a job fi finish and it nuh finish in time fi when the people coming for it. They (media) don't care about my brother. They have a job to finish. I also have a job to finish," he blasted, frustrated by the impact the ordeal has on his father.
As the story broke, local and overseas reporters rushed to the island, called every Malvo in the local telephone directory and made their way to schools Lee Malvo attended before leaving Jamaica for Antigua, where it is speculated he met Muhammad, and then the United States, which authorities said he entered illegally.
They also travelled to Waltham Park Road, Kingston where Malvo's father lives.
"My father now lock off him phone. Me, his son, was trying to call him and he doesn't even want to take in any calls. He says he doesn't want to talk to nobody else because... everybody down pan him, ah ask him this, ah ask him that. I have been up and down and I have my work to be done. I need to go on with my life," Rohan said, before deciding to grant further interviews. The Malvos were expected to speak on the Cable News Network's (CNN) programme, Connie Chung tonight on Friday.
As they were preparing to speak, CCN ran a news alert, stating that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had issued a material witness warrant for Nathaniel Osbourne, an alleged acquaintance of Muhammad. According to media reports, Osbourne, also said to be co-owner of the suspects' car, was picked up by police last Thursday.
There were also reports on Friday that Malvo's mother, Una James was now in protective custody in Washington. International media reports stated that she had been picked up by police last Wednesday.
