Fairfax, Va. ? Seventeen-year-old John Lee Malvo’s fingerprints were the only ones found on the rifle used in the sniper attacks, a prosecutor said Friday as authorities linked another Maryland shooting to the two suspects.

Nearly a month before last month’s deadly spree began in the Washington area, a man was shot six times at close range as he locked up his restaurant in suburban Clinton, Md. Paul LaRuffa, 55, survived.

“We’re confident we have a match between the shooting on Sept. 5 and the snipers,” said Capt. Andy Ellis of the Prince George’s County Police Department.

LaRuffa’s assailant took his laptop computer. Law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the laptop stolen in the Sept. 5 shooting was the same one found in Muhammad and Malvo’s car.

“The fact I was shot is mind-boggling, and the fact that it is linked is even more unbelievable to me,” LaRuffa said Friday.

He said he was glad the suspects were being prosecuted and said he was recovering from his wounds.

Malvo and John Allen Muhammad now have been accused of shooting 19 people, killing 13 of them, in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Two other shootings, in Washington state, are under investigation.

Federal authorities have given Virginia prosecutors the first trial against the suspects, saying the state has the best chance of obtaining the death penalty. No trial has been scheduled.

At the teenager’s initial court appearance in Virginia, Fairfax County prosecutor Robert F. Horan Jr. said eyewitnesses had spotted Malvo at three of the fatal crime scenes. The teen was ordered held without bail.

A few miles away, Muhammad, 41, made his first appearance in a Virginia court and a judge said he would appoint a lawyer for him.

Last week, Horan said without elaborating that there was “an equal possibility” either Malvo or Muhammad gunned down FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot on Oct. 14 in Fairfax. Malvo is charged in that case.

Horan would not discuss evidence in detail, but he said after the hearing that only Malvo’s fingerprints were found on the .223-caliber Bushmaster XM15 semiautomatic rifle authorities believe was used in the killing spree. The gun was found in the men’s car after their arrest Oct. 24.

Malvo’s court-appointed attorney, Michael Arif, dismissed the importance of the fingerprints. He said Malvo, who faces two counts of capital murder and a firearms charge, would plead innocent.

Arif complained that police questioned Malvo for nearly eight hours Thursday without a lawyer present. He said he would ask a judge to toss out any inappropriate statements Malvo may have made.

“I’m not at all comfortable with a 17-year-old being in police custody for that long without representation,” he said.

Horan said FBI agents were trying to find Malvo’s mother, who they believe now lives in Bellingham, Wash.

The prosecutor said Malvo tried to escape shortly after being taken into custody by crawling up into the ceiling at a Baltimore lockup. His escape was foiled when he fell through the ceiling tiles into a nearby office.