SEATTLE (AP) -- Investigators are combing through the lives of two men named in connection with the Washington, D.C.-area sniper investigation, searching for clues to what may have motivated a killing spree.
John Allen Muhammad, 42, one of the men, is a Muslim convert said to be sympathetic to the Sept. 11 hijackers, according to published reports.
Muhammad, formerly a soldier at Fort Lewis, and John Lee Malvo, 17, a Jamaican citizen who attended school in Bellingham, may have been motivated by anti-American sentiments, The Seattle Times reported Thursday, quoting unidentified federal officials.
The officials said both were known to have expressed sympathy toward the hijackers, but neither was believed to be associated with the al-Qaida terrorist network.
Malvo is believed to be the stepson of Muhammad, who converted to Islam many years ago and changed his name last year from John Allen Williams, investigators told the Times.
Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose, who is leading the sniper investigation, said Wednesday that Muhammad was being sought for questioning and called him "armed and dangerous."
Two men were arrested early Thursday after they were found sleeping in their car at a Maryland rest stop, authorities said. Police did not release the names of the two, but a law enforcement source close to the investigation told The Associated Press: "I'm confident that these are indeed the people" sought in the killings.
On Wednesday, federal agents tore up the back yard at the house in Tacoma where Muhammad once lived. Investigators also combed through Malvo's Bellingham High School student records, reportedly seeking samples of his handwriting.
Muhammad, who was stationed at Fort Lewis in the 1980s and served in the Gulf War, had four children by two marriages that ended in divorce. Both involved bitter custody battles and at least one accusation that he abducted the children.
Muhammad was outgoing and "had a good sense of humor. He wasn't a quiet type. He liked to talk. He liked to mingle with people," said Carol Williams, his first wife and mother of his oldest son. Court records showed no felony record for him in Washington state.
She said Muhammad converted to Islam after divorcing her 17 years ago, about the time he joined the Army.
"After he changed his religion, he called and told me what not to feed my child," she said. "I told him as long as he (their son) lived with me, it was up to me."
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Muhammad and Malvo stayed at Lighthouse Mission, a Christian homeless shelter in Bellingham. Bellingham Mayor Robert Asmundson said the teen had minor run-ins with police but never was charged with a crime.
Carol Williams said that on one occasion, when their son was in middle school and visited Muhammad in Tacoma, she had to fight a legal battle to gain the boy's return.
Muhammad's second wife was Mildred Green, with whom he had three children. Williams said Green called her a couple of years ago after their divorce to tell her that Muhammad had abducted their children and to ask for help in getting them back.
Elaina Whitlock, 38, who lived near the family for six years in Tacoma, said that after the divorce, Muhammad was granted weekend visitations but at one point left with the three children.
"Things were going OK with visitations and no one suspected he would take off with them, but then he couldn't have her and he knew it would hurt her if he took the children," said Whitlock. "Her life was her children."
Green was reunited with the children about 1½ years ago, Whitlock said.
Leo Dudley, a former Marine who lived a block from Muhammad, said Muhammad helped provide security for Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan's "Million Man March" in Washington, D.C.
Muhammad was in excellent shape and knew karate, Dudley said.
"Any time he shook your hand, he would crush it," said Dudley. "He was just country. He was from down South, and the military brought him up here."
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Associated Press writer Stephen Manning contributed to this story.
"I couldn't believe it was him. He was a muslim and... they don't teach that".