A suspect in shootings in Maryland and Delaware on Wednesday that left three people dead and three others injured was caught in Delaware after a manhunt, authorities said.
Radee Labeeb Prince, 37, is accused of killing three people and wounding two others at his job in Maryland on Wednesday morning. Police say he shot a sixth person about two hours later at a Wilmington, Delaware, car dealership.
In the late afternoon, authorities zeroed in on the suspected gunman’s vehicle — a 2008 black GMC Acadia SUV — about 15 miles from the scene of the second shooting. A tipster saw Prince leave the SUV and walk toward Glasgow High School in Newark, Delaware, said Wilmington Police Chief Robert Tracy.
Authorities set up a perimeter and later learned the suspected gunman was walking nearby. About 11 hours later, the manhunt ended when three agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives caught Prince around 7:05 p.m., not far from the high school, after a brief foot chase, Tracy said.
“On a very sad day, we came to a successful conclusion,” said Tracy, who added that Prince never made it onto the high school grounds.
A law enforcement official involved in the investigation told CNN that Prince was smoking a cigar when the agents discovered him walking.
Tracy said authorities recovered a .380-caliber gun Prince tossed during the chase.
The recovered weapon matched the caliber of shells found at the Maryland crime scene, the law enforcement source said.
Police: Six victims were ‘targeted’
The multistate hunt began early Wednesday after Prince drove to Wilmington from the Maryland shooting, about 55 miles away. Several agencies searched for the gunman, including the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force.
In Wilmington, Prince shot a male victim, striking him in the head, shortly before 11 a.m, according to Wilmington Police Chief Robert Tracy.
The victim, who knew Prince, gave police Prince’s name and the description of Prince’s SUV, Tracy said. Police, who had received an earlier alert about Prince from Maryland officials, spotted the vehicle leaving the scene and briefly chased it, before losing it.
“This is targeted. This individual knew the people he wanted to go shoot,” Tracy said earlier of the six victims. “This wasn’t a random act of violence where the person went out indiscriminately and was shooting people up.”
Tracy said he didn’t believe the two shootings were connected.
“The only connection is that he knew the individuals in Maryland and he knew the individual he shot” in Wilmington, Tracy said.
The police chief said Prince and the Wilmington victim have “had beefs, and they’ve had history together.”
Tracy said Prince has a lengthy criminal history, including 42 arrests, mostly for probation violations, and 15 felony convictions. Tracy did not offer details.
First shooting in Maryland
In Edgewood, Maryland, Prince killed the three victims at the Advanced Granite Solutions home remodeling business where he worked, roughly 30 miles northeast of Baltimore, around 9 a.m., Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said.
The Harford County Sheriff’s Office identified the three victims as Bayarsaikhan Tudev, 53, of Virginia; Jose Hidalgo Romero, 34 of Aberdeen, Maryland; and Enis Mrvoljak, 48, of Dundalk, Maryland.
“There’s an individual out there on the loose who committed one of the most heinous acts we’ve ever seen in our county. Certainly, we consider him armed and dangerous,” Gahler said before Prince was captured.
The two people injured in the Maryland shooting were in critical condition at the University of Maryland’s R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, officials said.
Sheriff: Suspect acted alone in Maryland shooting
Prince, of Wilmington, had worked at Advanced Granite Solutions, located in the Emmorton Business Park just south of Interstate 95, for roughly the last four months, Gahler said. Prince was scheduled to work Wednesday, according to the sheriff.
Police were called there at 8:58 a.m., and officers arrived four minutes later, according to the sheriff. The five people shot there are believed to be employees of the business, Gahler said.
The sheriff said a motive wasn’t known, but, “This does appear to be a target attack limited to that business.”
Prince was believed to have shot the five with a handgun, said the sheriff, who added that investigators were speaking with witnesses. Gahler didn’t say what the witnesses saw or whether any of them were in the building when the shooting happened.
Gahler said he believed Prince acted alone in the Maryland shooting.
“We do not believe, in this incident here, that he had any assistance whatsoever,” Gahler said.
Advanced Granite Solutions designs, manufactures and installs granite, marble and engineered stone countertops, vanity tops and surfaces, in part serving people who are remodeling their kitchens, bathrooms and fireplaces, the company’s website says.
Correction: This story has been updated to correctly spell the name of suspect Radee Labeeb Prince. Also, police have updated the license plate number for the car the suspect is believed to be driving.
