Man accused of killing roommate with meat cleaver had been harassing residents for years, neighbor says

BALTIMORE -- Patrick Cromwell, 59, was arrested early Sunday morning in Baltimore after telling police he used a meat cleaver to kill his roommate, according to police.

A neighbor told WJZ that Cromwell had made her and other residents uncomfortable for years.

"To wake up to this news shook me to my core because it could have been me,"  Emma Salazar said.

Salazar says she lived across the hall from Patrick Cromwell in a Roland Park apartment building.

According to charging documents, Cromwell told investigators he was attacked by Barranco, who was unarmed. Cromwell said he hit Barranco in the head and neck with a meat cleaver before using his hands and feet to strangle him.

"No one might have necessarily expected an outcome this extreme, but if there is one person in the building that was going to do something like that, everyone could have probably concluded that it was going to be him," Salazar said.

Salazar says for years Cromwell had been knocking on her door and window, sliding notes under her door, making her feel uneasy and unsafe.

She says she filed a complaint with building management about the harassment from Cromwell just days before the brutal killing. 

WJZ reached out to building management, but management declined to comment. 

"It's hard to say whether anyone saw him capable of it, but something was coming for sure," Salazar said.

Cromwell has a preliminary hearing scheduled for May 22.