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CNN Sunday Morning

Federal Agents Arrest Nathaniel Osbourne

Aired October 27, 2002 - 08:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with the case against the sniper suspects. Federal agents have arrested the registered co-owner of that Chevrolet Caprice, which was the key to the capture of suspects John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. Police say Nathaniel Osbourne is being held as a material witness. He is to appear in court later today.
CNN's Carol Lin joins us now from Montgomery County with more. Good morning, Carol.

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Renay. Yes, and authorities do say that Nathaniel Osbourne is cooperating with authorities. He was taken into custody yesterday in Flint, Michigan, without an incident. And the reason why FBI investigators are so interested in Nathaniel Osbourne is because he is a friend of John Allen Muhammad, one of the suspects in the sniper shootings. Not only is he a friend, but he apparently helped John Allen Muhammad buy the blue Chevy Caprice in which he was found and which was converted into what investigators call "a killing machine." And they want to know from Nathaniel Osbourne, how did John Allen Muhammad spend his time? How did he get the money to live on during his killing spree? Did they speak during the killing spree, and if so, what did John Allen Muhammad tell him?

Now, you might be wondering since he was arrested on a material witness warrant, why is he taken into custody? Why the arrest warrant? Well, they believe that Nathaniel Osbourne is a flight risk. After issuing several public calls that they wanted to speak with Nathaniel Osbourne, they couldn't find him. They went to his last known address in Trenton, New Jersey, hunted around, spoke with friends and neighbors, and then realized that perhaps, just perhaps, he disappeared right about the time, a few days before the two sniper suspects were arrested. They were concerned that he, obviously, is a flight risk and they needed to speak with him. So he is in custody; a hearing pending today.

In the meantime, we want to bring you some very touching moments from the 10th and last funeral of the sniper victims -- 35-year-old Conrad Johnson; he was the bus driver who was killed last Tuesday while on duty standing on the top step of his bus as he was waiting to get his orders for the day. And you are just looking at a few of the thousands of mourners who turned out for the funeral service in Silver Spring, Maryland yesterday.

He was really hailed as a blue collar hero. He had a cortege of some 30 buses, which came from as far away as Indiana. He is a 35- year-old father of two, whose story really resonated with anyone who has gotten up early and taken the early morning bus or put on a uniform to face the day in what are usually fairly anonymous jobs, or frankly anyone who kissed their loved one good-bye, and in this case for the last time that morning. He was known as a great friend and a loving husband and a really terrific father.

In the meantime, a lot of questions in terms of how the investigation was conducted. You know, you've heard the calls for white vans or trucks, which several witnesses had said they had sighted at different shootings, and yet as Chief Charles Ramsey of the Washington D.C. Police Department said, you know, they were looking for two white men in a white van and they ended up with two African- Americans in a blue Chevy Caprice. How did this happen? Well, CNN's Art Harris spoke to the chief.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As they struggled to catch a sniper, police stopped his car on numerous occasions but let it go.

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, WASHINGTON, D.C. POLICE: We ran the tag. It was clear.

HARRIS: In his first TV interview since the sniper suspect's arrest, Chief Charles Ramsey, a task force member, tells CNN the 1990 Chevy Caprice was pulled over by one of his D.C. officers. It was two hours before the only murder in the District tied to suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. It was October 3, the second day of killing.

RAMSEY: The lookout, again, was for a white box truck containing one or two white male suspects. You're talking about a blue Chevy with two black people in it.

HARRIS: The first five victims were already dead. Within two hours, Haitian immigrant Pascal Charlot, the District's only casualty, would be too.

The car eased through a Washington, D.C. stop sign, a clunker with out-of-state tags.

RAMSEY: It was just a typical police stop of a vehicle that looked a little bit suspicious.

HARRIS: It was registered to Muhammad, who had a valid driver's license.

RAMSEY: Now, he ran a license check. The car came back as being not stolen. Our own homicide had not yet even occurred, and there was absolutely no flash message at all for any kind of Chevrolet.

HARRIS: And the mystery car rolled on. A witness spotted it leaving the area of Charlot's shooting, but recalled it as burgundy, not blue. Right car, wrong color. RAMSEY: Sometimes in the stress of events taking place, you just witnessed a murder, things like color of a vehicle can sometimes be mistaken.

HARRIS: Later, D.C. police issued two lookouts for the Chevy. There were more sightings.

RAMSEY: Once in Baltimore, I'm told in Montgomery County, a red light camera captured an image of this vehicle going through a red light down in Fairfax County.

CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: When we're doing road blocks and we're stopping a lot of cars, you run those plates, it comes back clear, it comes back with no lookout attached to it, you move on to the next car.

HARRIS: Earlier this month, Moose downplayed the Chevy.

MOOSE: I think there's been more law enforcement focus on that, not a big push for public feedback about that.

HARRIS: But Chief Ramsey had yet to resolve one witness account of a Chevy cruising away from the D.C. murder scene with its lights off.

Elsewhere, other witnesses had been reporting white trucks and vans.

RAMSEY: We didn't want to get overly fixated on that type of vehicle because it may not be right. And as it turned out, it wasn't right.

HARRIS (on camera): CNN has learned there is another witness who saw the blue Chevy leaving the D.C. murder scene, but never came forward until the alleged snipers were arrested.

Sources say he told police he thought they were only interested in white vans.

Art Harris, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And Renay, to give this a little bit of context, we have to remember that all of this is hindsight, 20/20. It is very easy for public as well as law enforcement as well as the media to now focus on, ah, you know, this 1990 blue Chevy Caprice, people actually saw it at the time. But in the context of the investigation, consider the number of leads and clues that these investigators were following, not just reports of one or two reports of a blue Chevy Caprice or several white vans, but they were getting 15,000 calls, 15,000 calls a day, almost 70,000 calls total since this investigation began on October 2.

And, so, at the time they were simply, you know, following thousands of leads, speaking to thousands of people every single day. An investigation that was clearly -- they were anxious to resolve at the time.

SAN MIGUEL: There is a tendency to investigate the investigation. And thanks for keeping that in context for us. Carol Lin, reporting from Montgomery County, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 27, 2002 - 08:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with the case against the sniper suspects. Federal agents have arrested the registered co-owner of that Chevrolet Caprice, which was the key to the capture of suspects John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. Police say Nathaniel Osbourne is being held as a material witness. He is to appear in court later today.
CNN's Carol Lin joins us now from Montgomery County with more. Good morning, Carol.

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Renay. Yes, and authorities do say that Nathaniel Osbourne is cooperating with authorities. He was taken into custody yesterday in Flint, Michigan, without an incident. And the reason why FBI investigators are so interested in Nathaniel Osbourne is because he is a friend of John Allen Muhammad, one of the suspects in the sniper shootings. Not only is he a friend, but he apparently helped John Allen Muhammad buy the blue Chevy Caprice in which he was found and which was converted into what investigators call "a killing machine." And they want to know from Nathaniel Osbourne, how did John Allen Muhammad spend his time? How did he get the money to live on during his killing spree? Did they speak during the killing spree, and if so, what did John Allen Muhammad tell him?

Now, you might be wondering since he was arrested on a material witness warrant, why is he taken into custody? Why the arrest warrant? Well, they believe that Nathaniel Osbourne is a flight risk. After issuing several public calls that they wanted to speak with Nathaniel Osbourne, they couldn't find him. They went to his last known address in Trenton, New Jersey, hunted around, spoke with friends and neighbors, and then realized that perhaps, just perhaps, he disappeared right about the time, a few days before the two sniper suspects were arrested. They were concerned that he, obviously, is a flight risk and they needed to speak with him. So he is in custody; a hearing pending today.

In the meantime, we want to bring you some very touching moments from the 10th and last funeral of the sniper victims -- 35-year-old Conrad Johnson; he was the bus driver who was killed last Tuesday while on duty standing on the top step of his bus as he was waiting to get his orders for the day. And you are just looking at a few of the thousands of mourners who turned out for the funeral service in Silver Spring, Maryland yesterday.

He was really hailed as a blue collar hero. He had a cortege of some 30 buses, which came from as far away as Indiana. He is a 35- year-old father of two, whose story really resonated with anyone who has gotten up early and taken the early morning bus or put on a uniform to face the day in what are usually fairly anonymous jobs, or frankly anyone who kissed their loved one good-bye, and in this case for the last time that morning. He was known as a great friend and a loving husband and a really terrific father.

In the meantime, a lot of questions in terms of how the investigation was conducted. You know, you've heard the calls for white vans or trucks, which several witnesses had said they had sighted at different shootings, and yet as Chief Charles Ramsey of the Washington D.C. Police Department said, you know, they were looking for two white men in a white van and they ended up with two African- Americans in a blue Chevy Caprice. How did this happen? Well, CNN's Art Harris spoke to the chief.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As they struggled to catch a sniper, police stopped his car on numerous occasions but let it go.

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, WASHINGTON, D.C. POLICE: We ran the tag. It was clear.

HARRIS: In his first TV interview since the sniper suspect's arrest, Chief Charles Ramsey, a task force member, tells CNN the 1990 Chevy Caprice was pulled over by one of his D.C. officers. It was two hours before the only murder in the District tied to suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. It was October 3, the second day of killing.

RAMSEY: The lookout, again, was for a white box truck containing one or two white male suspects. You're talking about a blue Chevy with two black people in it.

HARRIS: The first five victims were already dead. Within two hours, Haitian immigrant Pascal Charlot, the District's only casualty, would be too.

The car eased through a Washington, D.C. stop sign, a clunker with out-of-state tags.

RAMSEY: It was just a typical police stop of a vehicle that looked a little bit suspicious.

HARRIS: It was registered to Muhammad, who had a valid driver's license.

RAMSEY: Now, he ran a license check. The car came back as being not stolen. Our own homicide had not yet even occurred, and there was absolutely no flash message at all for any kind of Chevrolet.

HARRIS: And the mystery car rolled on. A witness spotted it leaving the area of Charlot's shooting, but recalled it as burgundy, not blue. Right car, wrong color. RAMSEY: Sometimes in the stress of events taking place, you just witnessed a murder, things like color of a vehicle can sometimes be mistaken.

HARRIS: Later, D.C. police issued two lookouts for the Chevy. There were more sightings.

RAMSEY: Once in Baltimore, I'm told in Montgomery County, a red light camera captured an image of this vehicle going through a red light down in Fairfax County.

CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: When we're doing road blocks and we're stopping a lot of cars, you run those plates, it comes back clear, it comes back with no lookout attached to it, you move on to the next car.

HARRIS: Earlier this month, Moose downplayed the Chevy.

MOOSE: I think there's been more law enforcement focus on that, not a big push for public feedback about that.

HARRIS: But Chief Ramsey had yet to resolve one witness account of a Chevy cruising away from the D.C. murder scene with its lights off.

Elsewhere, other witnesses had been reporting white trucks and vans.

RAMSEY: We didn't want to get overly fixated on that type of vehicle because it may not be right. And as it turned out, it wasn't right.

HARRIS (on camera): CNN has learned there is another witness who saw the blue Chevy leaving the D.C. murder scene, but never came forward until the alleged snipers were arrested.

Sources say he told police he thought they were only interested in white vans.

Art Harris, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And Renay, to give this a little bit of context, we have to remember that all of this is hindsight, 20/20. It is very easy for public as well as law enforcement as well as the media to now focus on, ah, you know, this 1990 blue Chevy Caprice, people actually saw it at the time. But in the context of the investigation, consider the number of leads and clues that these investigators were following, not just reports of one or two reports of a blue Chevy Caprice or several white vans, but they were getting 15,000 calls, 15,000 calls a day, almost 70,000 calls total since this investigation began on October 2.

And, so, at the time they were simply, you know, following thousands of leads, speaking to thousands of people every single day. An investigation that was clearly -- they were anxious to resolve at the time.

SAN MIGUEL: There is a tendency to investigate the investigation. And thanks for keeping that in context for us. Carol Lin, reporting from Montgomery County, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com