Suspect in Maryland shooting at office park is in custody
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 away in Wilmington, Del., 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 ATF 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. “He’s desperate right now.”
Authorities said it wasn’t clear why Prince opened fire with a handgun on his colleagues.
The sheriff’s office said Wednesday night on its Facebook page that the people who died were Bayarsaikhan Tudev, 53, of Virginia; Jose Hidalgo Romero, 34, of Aberdeen, Md., and Enis Mrvoljak, 48, of Dundalk, Md.
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 co-worker 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 counseling in recent years.
The rampage began Wednesday about 9 a.m. at the Emmorton Business Park in Edgewood, Harford County, Md., Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said. Deputies arrived in four minutes but Prince had already fled.
Kevin Doyle of Thornhill Properties said he was getting tools from his truck when he heard screaming and saw three men running from the office park. The men told him someone was shooting and he asked if they had called 911. They said no, even though, Doyle said, they had phones in their hands.
“I think they were just so scared, they didn’t (call 911). They had a look of terror,” he said.
The victims and the suspect worked for Advanced Granite Solutions, which designs and installs countertops, the company owner told The Associated Press. Prince has been an employee for four months, working as a machine operator, owner Barak Caba told AP in a brief telephone interview. Caba was shaken and would not provide additional details.