A gunman shot five of his coworkers at a Maryland office park on October 18, killing three of them and setting off a manhunt along the I-95 Northeast corridor, authorities said.
The gunman was linked to a later shooting at a used car dealership in Delaware about 90 km away. At least one victim was targeted, authorities said, but the extent of their injuries was not released.
Authorities said it wasn’t clear why the man they identified as 37-year-old Radee Labeeb Prince arrived at work as scheduled and opened fire with a handgun on five of his colleagues.
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, the owner of the company that designs and installs countertops 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.
The wounded were in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head, according to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who spoke at an unrelated event. “The killer remains on the loose,” Mr. Hogan said.
Prince was fired from another job earlier this year after he attacked a coworker, according to The Baltimore Sun . A former coworker sought a restraining order against Prince in February, saying he had punched another employee and threatened employees.
“I felt very threatened because he is a big guy and very aggressive on me,” the coworker said in the application for the restraining order. The man said Prince did not get physical with him, but wrote- “I do not want to wait until he will.”
A Harford County District Court judge denied the order. The newspaper article did not identify the business or coworker.
The FBI is assisting local authorities. 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 Baltimore FBI field office.
Nearby schools and businesses were locked down as a precaution. The business park is about 40 km northeast of Baltimore, just south of the Interstate 95 interchange with Maryland 24.
There was heavy police presence along Interstate 95 in Maryland and Delaware. Cruisers were stationed in medians, and overhead highway signs displayed a description of Prince’s sport utility vehicle and its Delaware license plate.
According to online court records, Prince lived in Elkton about 50 km from the shooting scene as recently as last month. He faced several gun charges in March 2015 in Cecil County, including being a felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a handgun in vehicle. However, the charges were dropped about three months later.
A Maryland property manager said Prince often paid his rent late, but was always polite and cooperative. Heather Todd said Prince has rented a three-bedroom town house since November 2014 and lives there with his girlfriend. Her company, Homes for Rent, has filed eight petitions for nonpayment of rent against the couple. But she said they always ended up paying their rent and the company never had to schedule an eviction.
The sheriff said authorities checked an Elkton home after the shooting, but Prince was not there.
Wilmington, Delaware, police said he had relatives in the area there. Police spokeswoman Stephanie Castellani said the victim at the used car lot is best described as an “associate.” She said the shooting “was not a random act.”
