Rockville, Md. ? As federal and state officials wrangled over who would get first crack at prosecuting the sniper suspects, Maryland authorities Friday night charged each with six counts of first-degree murder and said they would seek the death penalty against John Allen Muhammad.

Arrest warrants were issued for Muhammed and John Lee Malvo, charging them in the six sniper slayings in Montgomery County. The brief warrants list each of the victims’ names, and accuse the suspects, who are in federal custody, of “premeditated malice.”

Earlier in the day, Alabama officials filed murder charges against the men for the fatal shooting of a woman during a liquor store robbery Sept. 21 in Montgomery, Ala., and plan to seek the death penalty.

State’s Atty. Douglas Gansler said earlier that prosecutors in Maryland where the majority of deadly shootings took place would not pursue a death sentence for Malvo, if his age is confirmed. Malvo, believed to be 17, would be too young to be eligible for the death penalty under Maryland law, which sets a minimum age of 18.

“Obviously we have different views in Maryland and Virginia on whether to apply the death penalty to a juvenile,” Gansler said. “We don’t feel the death penalty is appropriate for juveniles.”

The string of sniper attacks that began Oct. 2 left 10 people dead, including six in Maryland, three in Virginia and one in Washington, D.C. Three others were wounded.

Car’s co-owner sought

Meanwhile, a material witness warrant was issued for a New Jersey man who co-owned a car with Muhammad that authorities say was used in the sniper shootings. Authorities have not been able to find Nathanel O. Osbourne, 26, FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said in Philadelphia.

The FBI stressed that Osbourne was not a subject of the investigation in the shootings. A federal judge sealed the documents pertaining to the warrant, Vizi said.

Gansler had announced he would file murder charges after a meeting with prosecutors from jurisdictions where the killings took place. He said each of the jurisdictions had a vital interest in the case, but Montgomery County was the “community most affected and most impacted by the shootings.”

But Gansler acknowledged no agreement was reached at the meeting as to which jurisdiction would take precedence, saying “it’s a continuing dialogue.”

Yulonda Thomas, a friend of bus driver Conrad Johnson, who was killed in a sniper attack, mourns at a memorial for Johnson in Aspen Hill, Md. Authorities in three states and the District of Columbia conferred Friday about who should prosecute two suspects arrested in the deadly sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area for 21 days.

Justice Department officials are still weighing whether to bring their own charges or allow the states to handle the prosecutions. The overriding concern among federal officials is to ensure their legal options include the death penalty.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said federal prosecutors could use the Hobbs Act, which allows the government to seek the death penalty in murders where killers try to extort money. Police sources have said that one letter left behind in the sniper cases demanded $10 million.

The official noted that both suspects will remain in U.S. custody, giving the federal government an advantage if it decides to assert jurisdictional authority.

Malvo tried to escape from an interrogation room sometime after his capture by going through a panel in the ceiling, but investigators were able to pull him back down, a law enforcement source told The Associated Press; it was not known where he was being held. Muhammad was being held in a maximum-security state prison in Baltimore, according to the Maryland Division of Correction.

Sending a signal

In Montgomery, Ala., Police Chief John Wilson said investigators believe it was Muhammad, an Army Gulf War veteran, who fired the shots during the September liquor store robbery there.

“We want to send a very strong message to not only this community and this state but the country that this is not what we expect of civilized society,” Wilson said. “We’re going to make an example of somebody.”

Muhammad, 41, and Malvo were arrested Thursday at a Maryland rest stop. Investigators said a rifle found in their car had been linked to 11 of the shootings; ballistics tests from two others were inconclusive.

The men could still be prosecuted in Virginia and the other jurisdictions.