Gunman who shot five apprehended

EDGEWOOD, Md. — A man with a lengthy criminal past who showed up for work at a countertop company on Wednesday and shot five of his co-workers has been arrested, authorities said. Three of them were killed and two critically wounded.

Less than two hours later, Radee Labeeb Prince drove to a used car lot about 55 miles (90 kilometres) away in Wilmington, Delaware, and opened fire on a man with whom he had “beefs” in the past, wounding him, police said.

The shooting rampage set off a manhunt along the Interstate 95 Northeast corridor. Police cruisers were stationed in medians, and overhead highway signs displayed a description of Prince’s sport utility vehicle and its Delaware license plate. The FBI assisted state and local authorities in the manhunt.

Prince was “apprehended a short time ago in Delaware by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and allied law enforcement agencies,” the Harford County Sheriff ’s Office in Maryland tweeted Wednesday night.

“This is a person with no conscience,” Wilmington Police Chief Robert Tracy said earlier Authorities said it wasn’t clear why Prince open fired with a handgun on his colleagues.

Prince is a felon with 42 arrests in Delaware. Court records showed he had been fired from a Maryland job earlier this year after allegedly punching a coworker and threatening other employees. He also faced charges of being a felon in possession of a gun, was habitually late paying his rent, was repeatedly cited for traffic violations and was ordered to undergo drug and alcohol counselling in recent years.

The rampage began Wednesday about 9 a.m. at the Emmorton Business Park in Edgewood, Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said. Deputies arrived in four minutes but Prince had already fled.

Investigators were treating the shooting as a case of workplace violence and didn’t see ties to terrorism, said Dave Fitz, a spokesman for the FBI.