RICHMOND- The 17-year-old suspect in the Washington-area sniper attacks may have squeezed off the shot that killed an FBI analyst, a Virginia prosecutor said, raising the possibility that the death penalty could be brought against both suspects.

Robert F. Horan, Jr., the commonwealth's attorney for Fairfax County, told The Associated Press on Sunday there is "an equal possibility" for both suspects - John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17 - to have shot FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot on Oct. 14 in Fairfax.

The New York Times and Richmond Times-Dispatch both reported Monday that Horan suggested there is evidence Malvo was the shooter in that case.

"There will be evidence that the juvenile was the shooter," The New York Times quoted Horan as saying. He refused to provide any more details.

Despite murder charges filed in Maryland against the two sniper suspects, rival prosecutors in Virginia are circling the case with the promise that they could win death sentences against the pair.

At least two Virginia counties were prepared to seek charges Monday against Muhammad and Malvo, the men suspected of 13 shootings that left 10 dead and terrorized the suburbs around the nation's capital.

The suspects already face multiple murder charges in Maryland, and murder charges in Alabama unrelated to the sniper shootings. They also could be charged with federal extortion and murder counts that could bring the death penalty.

Last week, Maryland filed six first-degree murder counts against both Muhammad and Malvo. But the top elected official in Maryland's Montgomery County urged prosecutors to choose the strongest venue.

"They need to present a unified front to the public and say: 'Here's how we're going to handle this,' and wherever the case is strongest with the stiffest penalties, that's where they need to go," Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan said.