Suspect captured in ‘heinous’ Maryland workplace shooting that killed three

iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) —  A man suspected of killing three co-workers Wednesday in Maryland was captured in Delaware this evening, officials said.

Radee Labeeb Prince, 37, allegedly shot five people, killing three, at the Advanced Granite Solutions office in Edgewood, Maryland, Wednesday morning.

Prince entered the facility just before 9 a.m. and was an employee there, according to Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler. Police were on the scene within six minutes of being notified, authorities said.

A single handgun was used in the attack, police said. The identities of the victims have not yet been released.

Officials said Prince fled the scene in a 2008 black GMC Acadia. The car has Delaware license plates.

“There’s an individual out there on the loose who committed one of the most heinous acts we’ve ever seen in our county,” Gahler told reporters after the shooting. He confirmed that Prince has a criminal history and said he remained “armed and dangerous.”

Prince was also wanted in connection to a separate shooting in Wilmington, Delaware, Gahler said. The shooting was targeted, and Prince allegedly “had beefs” with the victim he shot there, Wilmington Police Chief Robert Tracy said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Wilmington police said they received the first report of a shooting less than two hours after the shooting in Maryland. A person was shot twice — once near his head and once on his body — and is expected to survive, Tracy said.

After the shooting in Wilmington, officers spotted Prince’s car, but they lost sight of the vehicle during a brief chase as it was heading north. His car was later found in Newcastle County, Delaware, Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Prince has a long criminal history, with 15 felony convictions and four misdemeanor convictions in Delaware, Tracy said.

In March 2015, Prince was charged in Cecil County with firearm possession with felony conviction as well as three related misdemeanors: possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition and having a handgun in a vehicle, according to court records. It is unclear why the case ended without prosecution three months later.

In February of this year, a man named Philip Siason filed a petition for a peace order against Prince, court documents show. In his account of why he was filing, Siason said that Prince was an employee of his at JPS Marble & Granite in Forest Hill, Maryland, and that he fired Prince for “punching another employee in the face.”

“He came back to our business justifying what he did was right because the other guy was saying things he did not like,” Siason said in the documents.

Siason said Prince later tried to collect unemployment benefits from the company, but the company told the unemployment agency that Prince was already working for another company. On Feb. 27, Prince “cursed and yelled” at Siason about the unemployment benefits, Siason wrote in the filing.

“I felt very threatened because he is a big guy [and] very aggressive on me,” Siason said, adding that while Prince did not injure him, he did “not want to wait.”

The order was denied because the court said there was no statutory basis for relief and that Siason could not meet the required burden of proof.

Gahler said Prince targeted the Maryland home improvement business where he was an employee.

“We know he worked here,” Gahler said. “He was scheduled to be at work today.”

He added, “We think it ties into the relationship here at work. I do believe he’s targeting for a specific reason and not general.”

Kevin Doyle, 47, told ABC News he was standing next to his work truck in a parking lot next to Advanced Granite Solutions when he saw three employees running out the back of the building with a “look of terror” on their faces.

Two of the Maryland shooting victims were transported to University of Maryland Medical Center and remain in serious condition, Gahler confirmed.

“Everyone shot is in serious condition,” he said.

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office tweeted a photo of Prince, including his birth date as well as the vehicle’s license plate number.

 

SEARCH for SUSPECT:
RADEE LABEEB PRINCE 11/5/79
2008 Black Chevy Acadia DE Tag PC064273
Call 911 if you see the suspect. pic.twitter.com/v8y18FOEUi

— Harford Sheriff (@Harford_Sheriff) October 18, 2017

The tweet warned: “Call 911 if you see the suspect.”

Prince is believed to have acted alone.

“We do not believe anybody else is connected to the shooting,” Gahler said.

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office is working with the FBI to investigate the shooting. An FBI official told ABC News that the agency is treating the incident as “workplace violence” and there are no indications of terrorism at this point in time.

Edgewood is about a 40-minute drive north of Baltimore, and a short distance to the second crime scene in Wilmington.

The close proximity to the crime scene was enough to cause Harford to warn the public that Prince could return quickly.

“He’s mobile,” Gahler said. “He could be back here in Harford County in 10 minutes.”

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

 

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