MD. JUDGE KILLED IN ‘TARGETED ATTACK’

Authorities in Maryland were investigating the killing of a judge at his home Thursday night and identified the suspect as a man who had been a plaintiff in an ongoing divorce case that the judge was handling.

The judge, Andrew Wilkinson of Washington County Circuit Court, was found around 8 p.m. Thursday in his driveway in Hagerstown, Md., suffering from what appeared to be gunshot wounds, officials from the county sheriff ’s office said.

His wife and son were home at the time, authorities said.

The sheriff ’s office said in a statement that it was looking for Pedro Argote, 49, as part of a preliminary homicide investigation.

Hours before he was shot, Wilkinson, 52, had presided over a hearing in a divorce case that had started last year in which Argote was the plaintiff. The judge issued a partial judgment of divorce at the hearing, court records show.

Wilkinson died of his injuries at a hospital in Hagerstown.

Sheriff Brian Albert of Washington County said at a news conference Friday that Wilkinson awarded custody of children to Argote’s partner at the hearing Thursday. Argote did not attend the hearing, Albert said.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to questions about Argote and the divorce case.

The killing was a “targeted attack,” Albert said at the news conference, adding that Argote was known to drive a silver Mercedes-Benz SUV with Maryland plates and should be considered “armed and dangerous.”

He said other judges in the county had been placed under police protection overnight as a precaution.

“But we don’t feel that there’s any threat, currently, to the other judges in the county or the state,” he added.