Police have found a trap door and an assault rifle in the trunk of a car used by two men who were arrested in connection with the sniper slayings.

MSNBC reports the small trap door has a view to the outside and is reported to be the diameter of a pole.

NBC News said investigators found a Bushmaster assault rifle in the car (left) of the two men arrested overnight at a rest stop in Frederick, Md. That weapon fires .223-caliber rounds, which are the types of bullets police said the Washington area sniper uses.

The Associated Press said a scope and a tripod were also discovered in the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the car (seen right) driven by the two men has been towed to a Montgomery County, Md., location and is being examined for evidence.

The 1990 blue Chevrolet Caprice was sealed at an Interstate 70 rest stop in Maryland and loaded onto a trailer.

Police have not identified the men who were taken into custody after being found asleep in the car at a rest stop in Myersville, Md., but sources tell News4 they are 42-year-old John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old John Malvo (at left).

Army records show Muhammad, also known as John Allen Williams, served 10 years in the U.S. Army, serving in Germany, Saudi Arabia, Fort Ord, Calif., and Fort Lewis, Wash. At the time of his discharge, in 1995, he was a sergeant, Army rank E-5. Officials said he served in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.

Baltimore police sources said Muhammad had an Oct. 8 run-in with Baltimore police at the height of the killing spree. Officers came upon him while he was sleeping in his car. They said he was not acting suspiciously. By then, eight people had already been shot by the sniper and a ninth was shot and killed the following day at a Manassas, Va., gas station.

Sources told News4 that the two men were found sleeping in their car at a rest stop off Interstate 70, in Myersville, Md., west of Frederick.

The Seattle Times reported Thursday that Muhammad is a convert to Islam and may have made statements sympathetic to the Sept. 11 hijackers. Muhammad's original name is John Allen Williams.

Muhammad and the 17-year-old were last known to be living in Clinton, Md., with Muhammad's ex-wife.

Muhammad left the Tacoma area in 2000. The 17-year-old last attended high school near Tacoma a year ago.

The Seattle Times also reported that the FBI has questioned Muhammad's ex-wife.

FeedRoom

Suspect's Ex-Wife Cooperating

A woman who identified herself as the ex-wife's sister said Muhammad's ex-wife, Mildred, was questioned by the FBI Wednesday. The woman said Mildred is living with her in Clinton, Md.

Former friends and neighbors are revealing more about Muhammad.

A former neighbor said Muhammad helped provide security for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's "Million Man March" in Washington, D.C. He also said Muhammad was in excellent shape, adding, "any time he shook your hand, he would crush it."

The Seattle Times reported he has four children by two marriages, both of which ended in divorce and involved bitter custody battles.

Maryland State police spokesman Greg Shipley said the men were found in a car that matched a description police gave at a midnight press briefing. The men were transported back to Montgomery County, Md., for questioning.

Shipley said a motorist and an attendant at the rest stop called police at about 1 a.m., after they spotted the men sleeping inside one of the cars sought in the sniper investigation, a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice with New Jersey plates similar to the one described by police late Wednesday night.

Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert told News4's Chris Gordon the men are in federal custody and are being questioned by federal authorities.

While there is great optimism and relief at the arrests, no one is certain that everyone involved in the sniper incidents is now off the street. "We've assumed it could be two people, but we've never been certain about that," one senior federal official said. "We cannot be confident yet that we know how many were involved."

For that reason, he said, there'll be no statements from authorities anytime soon confirming the sniper siege is over.

Members of the sniper task force then moved in and arrested the men without incident at 3:19 a.m., off I-70 in Frederick County, Md., Shipley said.

Hours earlier, police had issued an arrest warrant for John Allen Muhammad. He was wanted for questioning in the slayings and was being sought on a federal weapons charge, said Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose, who is leading the investigation. However, Moose cautioned that it shouldn't be assumed Muhammad, 42, is involved in any of the shootings in the area since Oct. 2. He said the arrest warrant for Muhammad was not connected to the sniper shootings. Muhammad was considered "armed and dangerous," Moose said.

Muhammad was said to be traveling with a juvenile, identified by a law enforcement source as 17-year-old Lee Malvo. Authorities did not say what the relationship was between Muhammad and the teen. Both men are natives of Jamaica.

FeedRoom

Washington State Sniper Tie?

The arrests came hours after authorities opened two new avenues in the investigation. FBI agents spent hours at a Tacoma, Wash., rental home, eventually carting away a tree stump from the yard and other potential evidence in a U-Haul truck.

According to the Seattle Times the task force in Maryland received a tip from a man in Tacoma, a friend of Muhammad's and Malvo's, who said he "had suspicions" about the pair.

According to the tipster, both Muhammad and Malvo were at the Tacoma house within the past three months. He or she described them as "transients" or "nomads", who sometimes took target practice at the property, even though it is in the middle of a densely populated residential neighborhood near Tacoma Mall.

While there, the tipster added, the two fired a .223 caliber rifle similar to that used in the snipings.

And in Montgomery, Ala., Mayor Bobby Bright said federal authorities were investigating whether a fatal shooting there last month was linked to the sniper. That shooting may have led to one of two major breaks in the case.

In a phone call to police, a man believed to be the sniper bragged about a fatal shooting last month in Montgomery, Ala., where the police said they found a fingerprint matching the 17-year-old Malvo.

In addition, sources told NBC News that authorities traced a bank account in Jamaica - where the sniper wanted $10 million wired - back to at least one of the men.