The US: One of the two men accused in a series of 10 fatal sniper attacks in the Washington DC area has told investigators he pulled the trigger in several of the shootings, the Washington Post has reported, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.
Described as "talkative, smiling, even bragging" during a seven-hour interrogation on Thursday, Mr John Lee Malvo (17) said he had scouted for sites and admitted to firing the shot on October 14th which killed a woman in a hardware store car park in Virginia, 15 km south-west of the capital.
Mr Malvo said he and Mr John Allen Muhammad (42) had embarked on a carefully planned shooting spree. The pair acted like soldiers, the Post said, communicating via walkie-talkie and taking turns acting as the "lookout". If traffic or other conditions were not acceptable, they would not shoot. Sources said Mr Malvo also said they moved around to create confusion and watched news coverage of their crimes.
Several US media outlets have reported, meanwhile, that the teenager's fingerprints were the only ones found on the rifle used to carry out the shootings.
Mr Malvo and Mr Muhammad are suspected of killing one person in the city of Washington, six in the neighbouring state of Maryland and three in Virginia between October 2nd and 22nd. Three others were injured in last month's attacks. Arrested on October 24th, they are to be tried in Virginia, where both could face the death penalty if convicted.
Authorities have also connected them to killings in Atlanta, Georgia, in Mr Muhammad's native Louisiana, in the west coast state of Washington and more recently, to the shooting of a golfer in Tucson, Arizona. - (AFP)