US: Tension is easing after the two arrests in the hunt for the sniper, reports Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, from Maryland
Relief broke out in one of the most difficult cases in recent US history. Hopeful that the hunt was finally over, parents and teachers could allow themselves a wary moment of relaxation.
A system of "code blue" security had been in operation in many schools, turning each educational institution into a mini-fortress with doors secured against the sniper's attacks.
Fears had intensified when it was revealed that the gunman made a particular threat to children: he had already shot and wounded a 13-year-old boy.
The nagging question however still remained: have they got the right man? Information was trickling out about John Allen Muhammad (41) formerly Williams, who was taken into custody with his 17-year-old stepson, John Lee Malvo.
A father-and-son photograph of the pair flashed up on TV: both of them smiling in a typical family picture without the slightest hint of disturbance or menace.
The duo were being held at an "undisclosed location" in Montgomery County, half an hour's drive from downtown Washington. This is the centre of the manhunt which still remains locally led, some say because only a local prosecution can demand the death penalty.
A vast media circus has sprung up in the grounds of the Montgomery County Police Department in the town of Rockville, Maryland, with several dozen tents housing the reporting and technical staff of network television and other media outlets.
A battery of microphones has been set up for the briefings and news conferences of Charles A. Moose, head of the county police, who apparently thought he was coming to a quiet part of the world when he first took over the job.
These microphones have been the medium for transmitting Chief Moose's messages to the sniper, most notably the intriguing request from the killer to say on the national (and international) airwaves: "We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose." This was before any arrests.
Whether or not John Allen Muhammad was the sniper we still don't know and he must of course be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
He is reported to have served with the US forces in the 1991 Gulf War. On Wednesday, FBI agents searched a house in Tacoma, Washington state, on the west coast of the US, where Muhammad and his stepson were said to have lived. The agents carried out a minute examination of the yard and took away a tree stump which was apparently used for target practice.
Unconfirmed reports said only about three shots were fired into the stump at any one time, a possible harbinger of the economic use of bullets in the sniper case where only one shot was fired each time, but usually causing the victim's death.
There was also a reported connection with an armed raid in Alabama: curiously enough the place is also called Montgomery.
The younger of the two, John Lee Malvo, may have been linked to a robbery and murder outside an off-licence on September 21st. Police Chief John Wilson of Montgomery, Alabama, said there were "very good similarities" between a police sketch of Malvo and the suspect in the killing.
But there was cause for relief in the statement of another police spokesman who said: "It appears that these people who have been taken into custody are not acting with any group . . . it appears that they have acted on their own."
Muhammad, under his previous surname of Williams, had left the US Army in the mid-1990s after about 10 years of service. Government sources cited by Reuters said he was not trained as a sniper, but had been a mechanic.
There is some mystery about the circumstances in which he left the army. There is also an unconfirmed report that his former wife currently lives in Montgomery County.
There is mystery, too, over the motives for the spate of killings that have terrorised Washington suburbia since the start of the month. A note left at one of the crime scenes apparently mentioned $10 million but the experts say it is very unusual for a serial killer to look for money.
Some clever reporter asked the local prosecutor in Montgomery County if he believed the "shooter" was still at large. He replied "No."
If the manhunt is over, though, the questions are only beginning.