Boast of killing golfers is alleged
Tucson, Arizona Friday, 8 November 2002
Two Tucson police detectives flew to Seattle on Thursday, hoping to gain information officials called "critically important" from a man who claims one of the sniper suspects bragged of robbing and killing two golfers in Arizona.
The man, Harjeet Singh, 35, told The Seattle Times that sniper suspect John Lee Malvo, 17, boasted he and John Allen Muhammad, 41, killed the two men last spring, robbing them and hiding their bodies.
Authorities have established that Muhammad and Malvo were in Tucson March 13-16 visiting Muhammad's sister, and left for Flagstaff on March 25.
Golfer Jerry R. Taylor, 60, was shot March 19 while practicing chipping at the Fred Enke Golf Course in the 8200 block of East Irvington Road. His body was dragged some 40 feet from where he was killed and left in a tangle of palo verde trees.
Police have combed the area near where he was killed for the past two days, finding some ballistic evidence but saying it likely wasn't related to the slaying.
Tucson Assistant Police Chief Robert Lehner said verifying what Singh said would greatly bolster his department's case.
"We're dealing with a case where there was and is very little physical evidence," he said. "Even little details are critically important."
Muhammad and Malvo are accused of shooting 17 people, killing 12 and wounding five, in Alabama, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, Washington state and Washington, D.C. Authorities announced Thursday that ballistics tests connect the pair to yet another slaying - that of a man shot outside an Atlanta liquor store in September.
Authorities around the country are working to determine whether any other unsolved homicides could be related to the pair.
Meanwhile, authorities said another case involving an Oro Valley man likely is not connected to the snipers, leaving officials to speculate that Malvo was exaggerating in talking of two victims or Singh misunderstood about the second case.
Tucson police have no other unsolved homicides in the time they can place the suspects here and other agencies have said the same.
The Times speculated Malvo could have been talking of Oro Valley resident Albert Michalczyk, 72, who was shot in the chest while playing golf in Clearwater, Fla., in May.
Authorities found no ballistic evidence but concluded Michalczyk likely was shot by a rifle from a distance, said Clearwater Police Department spokesman Wayne Shelor.
Michalczyk, who was shot in the chest but released from the hospital within five hours, said he began to suspect he was a victim of the snipers when he learned of a possible connection between the pair and Taylor's death.
"When I found out these guys were here, I thought I'd put two and two together," he said Thursday. Michalczyk was visiting family in Florida when he was shot.
Authorities looked at the case because it fit the snipers' profile and Malvo's mother lived in Fort Myers, 130 miles from Clearwater, Shelor said.
"But we found absolutely nothing that ties our shooting to the two men," he said. Shelor said federal authorities also told him the two were "a continent away" when Michalczyk was shot.
Lehner said Singh's story mirrors parts of what the local investigation has found, but not others. Detectives will need to determine whether the discrepancies are due to the time elapsed since Singh talked to Malvo in April or whether the story is fabricated.
"We have to take those statements seriously and we are," he said. "We're pursuing every lead that develops out of it."
Lehner would not say what evidence matched and what differed because the difference will help determine how authentic Singh's information is. He also would not release any new information about Taylor's death.
"By withholding certain information, it allows us to determine how factual this secondhand account is," he said. "We can't do that if we release all the information from our scene."
Also, he said, it could compromise an ongoing homicide investigation should the sniper suspects be ruled out.
Singh, 35, a self-employed textile salesman with a criminal history, told the Seattle paper he often worked out with Malvo and Muhammad at the YMCA and became friendly with them.
He told investigative reporter Duff Wilson he didn't question Malvo about his claim because he didn't take it seriously.
Singh did not return a call to the Arizona Daily Star.
The Times also reported Singh told police and the FBI on June 5 that Muhammad had plans to build a silencer for a high-powered rifle. He also said Muhammad spoke of plans to shoot a police officer and fuel tanker truck.
Singh said Malvo talked of the golf-course shootings during one of his few talks with the teen apart from Muhammad - when Malvo stayed overnight at his apartment. He also said he drove Malvo to a library, where the youth said he was researching rifles and silencers.
Lehner said police aren't relying solely on Singh's story and cautioned that the story itself would not be enough to concretely connect Muhammad and Malvo to Taylor's death.
"We don't have anything right now today that says these guys did it," Lehner said. "It will be days, if not weeks, before we'll know about new evidence."
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