[url]http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWS/StoryLocalnusniper24w.htm[/url]
Oct. 24, 2002
Montgomery, Alabama  

Sniper trail leads to Alabama

The investigation into the Montgomery County, Md., area snipings moved to Montgomery County, Ala., Wednesday night as a local connection was made in the investigation.

Federal authorities also were reported to be investigating a possible connection between two men they were seeking -- John Mohammed, also known as John Allen Williams, and Lee Malvo -- and a shooting range outside Marion, Ala.

Capital City authorities have cooperated with federal authorities in the investigation of the Washington-area sniper, Montgomery Police Chief John Wilson confirmed Wednesday night.

Wilson said the federal authorities wanted information about the Sept. 21 shooting death of Claudine Parker and the wounding of Kellie Adams at the Alabama Beverage Control store at 2690 Zelda Road, where the women worked.

Fox News reported late Wednesday that the sniper has demanded that $10 million be transferred to a credit card taken from one of the ABC store shooting victims. Wilson would neither confirm nor deny that report.

Also, the Baltimore Sunis reporting in today's editions that Montgomery police recovered a fingerprint from a piece of paper at the ABC shooting scene and linked it to one of the men being sought.

Wilson said he believed the federal inquiry was a "part of a typical investigation process" in which the FBI and Washington-area police "are following every possible lead."

Wilson said his department would provide the FBI with all the information it has on the ABC store shooting, but added that "we know our ladies were not shot with the same caliber bullet that has been used by the sniper and were not shot with the same type of weapon."

"We don't have any reason to believe that any of our children or any other of our citizens are in any danger," Wilson said. "If at any time I get any inkling they are, I will be the first one to let the public know."

Adams said "It's kind of freaky," when told Wednesday night there might be a connection between the ABC store shootings and the Washington, D.C., sniper.

She was not contacted until late Wednesday by police or federal authorities about the possible connection. She had not talked to police in two weeks about the shooting, she said.

A Sept. 21 shooting at an ABC Beverage Store in Montgomery is being analyzed for a possible link to the Washington, D.C., area sniper spree.

Mayor Bobby Bright confirmed that the federal authorities contacted city police on Tuesday to get the investigation file on the ABC shooting.

"They had a tipster come and say that there was a connection between the city of Montgomery and Montgomery County (Maryland)," Bright said. "We've turned over all the information. There has been no confirmation that it involves the sniper there."

The information was turned over to local FBI agents Tuesday. Montgomery police were asked to supply followup information Wednesday. The lead investigator on the ABC shooting flew to Washington to deliver the information.

Before police told Adams to not talk to the press, she said Wednesday that she never thought the shooting was a robbery, as police reported.

She said that she and Parker were locking up the store for the night when she thought she was stuck by lightning. She was facing the store with her back to the street when the slug struck just below the base of the back of her skull. The slug exited through her face.

Parker was then shot.

"I don't know where he was when he shot us." Adams said. "I never saw a face. I never saw him, period."

She said police suggested the gunman used a handgun and was standing behind a stone pillar.

The gunman, she said, never approached the women or said anything.

"That's why I don't think it was a robbery attempt," Adams said. "He didn't talk to us, and he didn't approach us. He went through my purse, but he didn't taken anything."

The keys to the store were still in the door lock when police arrived, she said.

Police also told her the slug was a .22 caliber.

As national media began to piece things together, Camp Ground Zero in rural Perry County, near Marion, took center stage. Late Wednesday, Mark D. Yates, operator of Ground Zero, called the reports "absolute nonsense ... (The two men sought by authorities) have never been through any of our programs."

"I can tell you that they've never been to Ground Zero. I think this is a case of the media adding two plus two and getting five."

"If they had served warrants, we would know it," Yates said.

He said he has had no contact with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI, "not even police or sheriff's deputies."

He also denounced media descriptions of "Camp Ground Zero."

"It's not a camp, it's a shooting range," he said. "

Perry County Sheriff's Sgt. Carlson Hogue confirmed at the Ground Zero site that no warrants were served Wednesday. He also said Perry County Sheriff James Hood also knew of no federal action in his area.

As of late Wednesday, the camp was locked with no visible movement.