Police: Man Who Allegedly Killed 3 Co-workers Captured After Hours-Long Manhunt
EDGEWOOD, Md. (WJZ/AP) -- Hours after police say he shot and killed three people at his Harford County workplace, 37-year-old Radee Labeeb Prince was apprehended in Newark, Delaware Wednesday evening.
At around 7:20 p.m., the Harford County Sheriff's Office tweeted that Prince was taken into custody a short time before by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and allied law enforcement agencies.
Prince, police say, opened fire on his coworkers at Advanced Granite Solutions in the Emmorton Business Park in Edgewood shortly before 9 a.m.
Prince later shot a man at a used car dealership in Wilmington, Delaware, local police said.
After that shooting, police were able to tail him for a short time, but ultimately lost track of him. That spurred an hours-long manhunt along the I-95 corridor, with officers from local police departments and federal agencies on alert.
THE SUSPECT
Prince had worked as a machine operator for Advanced Granite Solutions for four months, and Wednesday was a scheduled work day for him, police say.
WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren reports that Prince was convicted of 15 counts of third degree burglary in Delaware, and sentenced in 2007 to 25 years in prison, but all but two years were suspended.
He has also had run-ins with the law since then, in 2015 and 2016. And there was some sort of protective order involving him in Harford County in February of this year.
Our media partners at The Baltimore Sun report that Prince was fired from another job earlier this year after he attacked a co-worker and that the protective order stems from that incident.
In a written application for the order, the man wrote that Prince came back to the business several times after he was fired.
He said one time, Prince came to see him, and cursed and yelled at him. The person wrote: "I felt very threatened because he is a big guy and very aggressive on me."
A Harford County District Court judge denied the order.
The man said Prince did not get physical with him, but wrote: "I do not want to wait until he will."
According to online court records, Prince lived in Elkton as recently as last month. Wilmington Police say he is from there, and has family in the area.
A property manager says Prince often paid his rent late, but was always polite and cooperative.
Heather Todd said he has rented a 3-bedroom town house since November 2014. Todd said Prince 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 VICTIMS
Shock Trauma clinicians are evaluating two patients from the shooting who are both in critical condition. According to our media partner The Baltimore Sun, Governor Larry Hogan said those two victims were shot in the head.
During a 2 p.m. press conference, Harford Co. Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said one of the victims had just gotten out of surgery.
An employee of the business who has been out recently with an injury spoke with WJZ's Rick Ritter around 1:40 p.m.
"I was at home and my dad called me and he said 'The place that you work just got shot up.' And the first thing, it sent a cold chill through my body because I got a lot of close friends there. And I'm... horrified at this, man. This is crazy. I'm horrified... They haven't released the names yet but I mean, it really didn't matter, because I loved everybody there."
The three killed have been identified as:
Bayarsaikhan Tudev - 53
Jose Hidalgo Romero - 34
Enis Mrvoljak - 48
THE WITNESSES
An employee of another business in the Edgewood office park, Larry, told WJZ around 10:15 a.m. that he and three customers were locked down in R.E. Michel Company building.
"Right now we see about five or six police cars, we had a couple ambulances," he told WJZ around 10:15 a.m. "They have the whole area roped off and they had a SWAT team walking around the industrial park with rifles in their hands. .. We got a phone call from a customer earlier .. that there was a shooting at the industrial park right down at 2110, which is the granite place up the street from us. But we didn't hear any gunfire. And then our neighbor next door at the carpet center heard a lot of arguing. … We heard a lot of arguing and stuff like that, but we didn't hear any gunfire."
Another man told WJZ just before 1 p.m. that he was walking near the scene when he saw three people running out of the building.
They apparently told him "call 911, there's a shooter."
"I think they were right there when it happened, I could tell," he said. "One guy was crying and it might have been their friends. I think it was their co-workers."
Erica Griffin, who lives directly behind the business complex, tells WJZ, "I woke up due to like the vibrations from my house and I had two telephone calls reporting, you know about an active shooter."
She says she applied to work at Advanced Granite Solutions about a month ago.
"Something was just telling me 'Hey, maybe this isn't the job for you'... so I kept looking and thank God... because this was God telling me that, you know, this was just definitely not your time."
CONDOLENCES
Advanced Granite Solutions released this statement on Facebook around 2:30 p.m.:
Words cannot express our feelings. We mourn the loss of our friends. We would like to send our sincere condolences to the families. May God give our friends eternal rest and the families the strength to bear the great pain.
Prayers and condolences to everyone affected by this tragedy.
Governor Larry Hogan released the following statement on Facebook around 11:30 a.m.:
"I just got off the phone with Harford County Executive Barry Glassman and Sheriff Jeff Gahler and reaffirmed the state's complete and full support as they respond to this tragic shooting. Maryland State Police and other state law enforcement are actively working with federal and local law enforcement to apprehend the suspect. State helicopters are in the air and State Troopers are on the ground from multiple barracks. I ask all citizens - especially those in this area - to please remain vigilant, and if you think you may have any information about this terrible crime, please call 911 immediately. The First Lady and I ask that all Marylanders join with us in praying for the victims, their loved ones, and those still fighting to live."
County Executive Barry Glassman released this statement around 12:30 p.m.:
"Our sympathy and prayers are with the families of the lost and the injured employees in today's horrible shooting. Harford's allied emergency services are assisting the Harford County Sheriff's Office and the impacted families. In addition, my administration's Department of Emergency Services is assisting our local, state and federal partners in apprehending the suspect."
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