WILMINGTON - Police are investigating a potential link between a Spokane, Wash., man questioned in connection with a triple slaying last year in Arkansas and a shootout with police here in which two gunmen remain fugitives, sources close to the investigation here and in Arkansas said.
Pope County, Ark., Sheriff Jay Winters said Sunday night that Ohio State Highway Patrol investigators told him they had confiscated numerous weapons from the gunmen's vehicle, including at least one AR-15 military-style assault weapon.
The AR-15 is ''the connector at this point. And, of course, the vehicle, but that could be coincidental,'' the sheriff said.
The Highway Patrol declined to identify the weapons taken from the light blue Chevrolet Suburban with Washington state license plates, but certain items give them ''strong leads to who (the suspects) are,'' spokesman Sgt. John Born said.
The two men were videotaped by a recorder in the trooper's cruiser. The vehicle matches the general description of the vehicle, owned by the Spokane man, involved in the Arkansas case.
Sheriff Winters said the Spokane man isn't a suspect in the Arkansas slaying, but was charged by South Dakota state police Dec. 10 with possession of a rifle stolen from the slaying victim's home in 1995.
Arkansas authorities confirmed they had questioned the man after he was freed following his arrest in South Dakota and that he probably remains free.
The Enquirer is not naming the suspects because they have not been charged in the weekend incident.
''We have been in contact with Arkansas, we've looked into that,'' a source close to the investigation here said, ''but we are unable to substantiate it.''
The gunmen Sunday continued to elude police, who searched the rolling, wooded farmland in Wilmington. The search included use of infrared ''body heat detectors'' from a police helicopter.
Sgt. Born said he suspects the two men are out of the area, though some locals fear the two may be holed up in one of the many homes under construction nearby.
The FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have joined the search for the gunmen.
The rifle taken from the Spokane, Wash., man charged in South Dakota once belonged to William Mueller, 52, of Pope County, Ark. The bodies of Mr. Mueller, his wife, Nancy, 28, and her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Powell, 8, were found June 29 in the Illinois Bayou, a waterway near Russellville, Ark.
The family was on its way to a gun show when last seen alive by relatives June 9. The Muellers, according to news reports, had ties to militia-type organizations.
During a burglary of the Muellers' home in 1995, numerous guns were stolen, including two that South Dakota authorities say were found in the Spokane man's Suburban.
The Wilmington suspects were stopped Saturday afternoon on Ohio 73, near U.S. 22, for a vehicle registration violation. When the driver refused to consent to a pat search and began returning to his vehicle, the passenger opened fire on a state trooper and a Clinton County sheriff's deputy before fleeing into woods, police said.
The driver, who fled in the vehicle, was spotted in a nearby parking lot a short time later by a Wilmington police officer, at whom the suspect fired several shots from a rifle, officials said.
One of those shots hit a passing motorist, Frank Marsden, 56, of Wilmington.
Mr. Marsden, who was going out for a belated Valentine's Day lunch with his wife, Mary, and his son, Chris, was treated at Clinton Memorial Hospital for a minor gunshot wound to the left shoulder.
''Soon as I turned, I knew I was hit,'' Mr. Marsden said Sunday from his home. ''Everything happened so fast. A little bit over and it could have hit my head.''
The driver then fled on foot.
''There were too many gunshots to count,'' gas station clerk Bev Sheeley said of the second shootout, which she heard. Moments later, she said, Mr. Marsden's son came in and frantically asked her to call 911 to help his father.
The driver then fled on foot.
''There were too many gunshots to count,'' gas station clerk Bev Sheeley said of the second shootout, which she heard. Moments later, she said, Mr. Marsden's son came in and frantically asked her to call 911 to help his father.
All three police officers fired during the incident, but there was no blood or other evidence to suggest that either suspect was hit, Ohio's Sgt. Born said.
He added there was no indication so far why the men were in the area.
According to a Dec. 12 Associated Press article from Sioux Falls, S.D., deputy state attorney Mark Reedstrom said white supremacist literature was found in the Washington man's Chevrolet Suburban, and that the man admitted he was a white supremacist.
Sgt. Born said a complete inventory of the vehicle was still being made Sunday.
