LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — A Loudoun County judge on Thursday rejected a request for a gag order from a man wanted for questioning in the shooting deaths of three Alexandria residents.

Charles Severance, 53, of Ashburn, is in jail awaiting trial in Leesburg on a firearms charge, but his case is drawing pervasive media attention because Alexandria police have said they want to question him in the unsolved shooting deaths of three city residents, dating back to 2003. Severance has not been charged in those slayings and police have declined to name his a suspect. His lawyers have described the firearms charge in Loudoun as a sham to hold him while the investigation into the shooting deaths continues.