Police seized face masks, .40-caliber Glock 22 pistol — popular with law enforcement — and a knife from the family home of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger, court documents revealed Thursday.
When police arrested Kohberger in Pennsylvania, investigators took “black face masks,” the weapon, three empty magazines for the Glock and a Smith & Wesson pocket knife, according to newly unsealed search warrant documents.
When four University of Idaho students were slain on Nov. 13, a witness said she stood in “frozen shock phase” and described the suspect as “a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” according to the court documents.
The suspect’s attorney in Idaho could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday morning.
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Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in the early morning hours of Nov. 13. All four victims — Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20 and Madison Mogen, 21 — were fatally stabbed.
Even though a firearm was not used in the Idaho killings, John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Michael Alcazar said there’s still potential evidentiary value in that seized gun.
The suspect could have had it with him the night of the murder and have victims’ DNA on it and police are surely going to test the weapon for connections to any unsolved crimes, according to Alcazar.
“Maybe he has the gun on his person when he committed these crimes. He might have blood, saliva, sweat from the victims and transferred it to the weapon,” said Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective who teaches introduction to criminal investigations.
“There might be some unsolved shootings or homicides we can link to this weapon, I would absolutely test that weapon for that.”
The Glock 22 is touted by its manufacturer as one of its most popular police service weapons.
At the time of the slayings, Kohberger was a doctoral student, studying criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, a short drive over the state line from Moscow. A WSU official has said Kohberger is no longer enrolled.
The suspect’s and victims’ two universities are just 10 miles apart and residents of the two college towns — Pullman, Washington, and Moscow, Idaho — regularly travel the short distance to each locale.
Brittany Kubicko contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
