What to Know
- Radee Labeeb Prince, 37, was captured Wednesday evening following a nearly 12 hour long manhunt, police said.
- Prince killed three co-workers at a Maryland granite company, then drove to Wilmington and shot a car dealer, police said.
- Six people were shot in all: Five workers at the granite company and one at the Delaware car dealer, police said.
UPDATE: Radee Prince was arraigned on attempted murder charges in Delaware Thursday morning.
The man sought for a pair of shootings that spanned two states — leaving three dead and three others hurt — was caught in Delaware following a daylong manhunt, police in Wilmington said.
Radee Labeeb Prince, 37, was captured on foot along Four Seasons Parkway near Clover Mill Drive in Newark, Delaware at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
Prince was the central character in a massive manhunt that stretched from Maryland to New York.
Local, state and federal authorities spent nearly 12 hours looking for Prince. It was ATF agents who ultimately took him into custody about an hour and a half after his unoccupied getaway vehicle was found on Cobblecreek Creek Curve next to Glasgow High School in Newark. Police say Prince was spotted by a witness leaving the vehicle and walking toward the high school. The witness then contacted law enforcement.
Officers from multiple departments arrived at the scene, secured the vehicle and set up a perimeter around the area.
Around 6:45 p.m., police received another tip that Prince was spotted walking on foot on Thanksgiving Way behind the Four Seasons Shopping Center, according to investigators. Prince was then taken into custody by the three ATF agents at 7:05 p.m. after a brief foot chase, police said.
During the chase, Prince allegedly threw away a .380 firearm which was later recovered by police, according to Wilmington Police Chief Robert J. Tracy. No one was hurt during the arrest.
"This couldn't have been done without our federal, state and local officers working together," Chief Tracy said.
"A coordinated effort brought this to a very successful conclusion on a very, very bad day."
Prince was arraigned on attempted murder charges in Delaware Thursday. It's unclear what charges he could face in Maryland.
Prince is accused of walking into his job at Advanced Granite Solutions, a Edgewood, Maryland granite company, just before 9 a.m. Wednesday and opening fire on his co-workers.
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Five staffers were hit. Three were killed, police said. The two victims who survived are in critical condition.
The gunman then sped 51 miles north in his black 2008 GMC Acadia to Wilmington where he confronted an acquaintance, Jason Baul, according to investigators.
Baul was working at his used car dealership, 28th Street Auto Sales and Service, along the 2800 block of Governor Printz Boulevard when, around 10:30 a.m., police say Prince shot him twice.
He suffered gunshot wounds to his head and body, but was alert when officers arrived, Chief Tracy said. He remains hospitalized in stable condition.
Prince's SUV was still near the second shooting scene when Wilmington police arrived. Baul pointed out the SUV to police and it sped away before they could give chase, Tracy said.
The vehicle was recovered by police near Wilmington around 6:30 p.m. A short-time later, Prince was taken into custody.
The motive for both shootings remains unclear, though he knew all of the victims.
"How do you get into a mind of a person that's capable of shooting five people that are coworkers? What gets in his mind? What precipitated that? It's tough to rationalize," Tracy said during a Wednesday night press conference following Prince's arrest.
Barak Caba, owner of Advanced Granite Solutions which designs and installs stone countertops, told the Associated Press that Prince worked there as a machine operator for the past four months. He was scheduled to work Wednesday.
Prince's co-workers said the man kept to himself and barely talked. They remain baffled by the killings and say there were no signs of any issues. Four workers at the company told NBC10 they were only feet away as Prince opened fire and killed their three co-workers, including one victim identified as Jose Hidalgo Romero.
"They were all family," said Ibrahim Kucuk, a manager at Advanced Granite Solutions. "We've been working together for a long time. It's just tragic."
A moment of silence was held for the victims in Maryland. Several members of the community gathered for the candlelight vigil Wednesday night.
"Community is great," Kucuk said. "They are doing great support. Everybody has been very helpful."
Friends and relatives of Baul didn’t know why he was allegedly targeted by Prince. They said they actually don’t recognize Prince at all. Investigators say however they believe Prince targeted Baul because of a past history related to criminal case.
Baul is the type of person, they said, who loaned tow trucks to help out after a recent hurricane.
“He was the type of person if he could help you he would help you. He’s a good-hearted man,” John Broomer, of Wilmington, said. Broomer's granddaughter is engaged to Baul.
"My daughter called me she was hysterical crying saying Jason had got shot," said Ethel Jenkins, of Wilmington, whose daughter is engaged to Baul.
Real estate records link Prince to a home along the 500 block of Kiamensi Road in Wilmington.
Margaret Melton, a woman who resides at the home, told NBC10 that Prince does not officially live at the Wilmington address. "He lives in Maryland," Melton said. Court records show he most recently lived in Elkton, Maryland — along the Maryland-Delaware border.
She has known Prince since he was in the fourth grade, she said.
"He lived here on and off, when he had issues," Melton said. She did not go into details about what issues he had.
Another neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said she knows Prince's family.
"That boy had a good upbringing," she said. "It wasn't like he was a madman or he was a crazed maniac, because he wasn't."
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Prince, according to court records in Washington state, lived in the Seattle area for a few years earlier this decade. The online records indicated he had court cases for unspecified proceedings between 2010 and 2014.
He apparently was back on the East Coast by 2015, as court records in Cecil County, Maryland, show he was in court on illegal firearm possession charges. Those charges apparently were dropped.
But court documents cited by The Baltimore Sun claim Prince has had run-ins with people he worked with in the past.
Prince was fired from a job in February after he allegedly punched a co-worker in the face and threatened other staffers, the Sun reported citing court documents.
The assaulted co-worker later asked a Maryland judge for a restraining order against Prince. The request was denied because a burden of proof was not met, Maryland court records show.
In all, Prince was arrested 42 times in Delaware alone, including 15 felony convictions, leading some people to wonder why he was free when he allegedly went on a shooting rampage.
"If there's violent people that are causing carnage in the community and have some violent crimes, we've gotta find a way to keep them behind bars, so they can't go out and re-offend," Tracy said.
The FBI says they are treating the case as workplace violence and don't see ties to terrorism.
