First charges filed against D.C.-area shooting suspect
BETHESDA, Md. -- A massive D.C.-area manhunt ended Friday when authorities arrested a suspect in three fatal shootings.
Police announced at a news conference Friday that 62-year-old Eulalio Tordil had been taken into custody without incident.
Tordil is an employee of the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties. He was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him.
"One of the cops saw a vehicle that matched a car from the homicide on Thursday night," said Tom Manger, Chief of Police for Montgomery County at a Friday afternoon press conference. "The plain clothes officer spotted that suspect at the Dunkin Donuts in Aspen Hill. We had him under surveillance and he was walking store-to-store. They saw him walk back to his car and they took him into custody without incident," said Manger.
The first shooting occurred Thursday at a high school. The second occurred in a mall parking lot Friday morning and the third happened about 30 minutes later at a nearby shopping center.
Police say he followed his estranged wife 44-year-old Gladys Tordil to their children's Beltsville's High Point High School on Thursday and shot her. He also shot and wounded a man who tried to intervene.
CBS Investigative reporter Laura Strickler says the wife had taken out a protective order against Tordil, which among other things, alleges he had molested two minor children in the home. The order, issued for one year beginning March 17, ordered Tordil to refrain from having any firearms and supposed to leave his work firearm at his job during non-work hours.
Authorities say Tordil had threatened to "commit suicide by cop." That detail was in a flyer the Prince George's County Police Department released Thursday asking for the public's help to locate Tordil.
Friday morning, at the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, about 10 miles northwest of downtown Washington, one person was initially shot and two others may have been shot coming to that person's aid, said Montgomery County Police Assistant Chief Darryl McSwain. There's no reason to believe the victims knew the shooter, he said.
A man died and another one is in critical condition, Montgomery County police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks said. A woman has injuries that are not life-threatening.
About a half an hour later, police were called to a shooting at a Giant Food store in Aspen Hill, about 5 miles away. Police later tweeted that a woman died after that shooting.
For a time, all Montgomery County schools were sheltering in place at the request of police, but schools officials later tweeted that all but five schools would dismiss on time.
Friday evening, Prince George's County Police charged Tordil with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his estranged wife. More charges were pending.
John McCarthy, State Attorney for Montgomery County, said that Tordil will be arraigned on Monday, May 9 at 1 p.m.
The grocery store in Aspen Hill is a few hundred feet from a Michaels craft store that was first target by D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad. Muhammad's shot into the store did not hit anyone, but he killed a man about a mile away less than an hour later, kicking off a three-week killing spree that left 10 dead.
Tordil ate at the same Boston Market as Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, who was also convicted in the sniper attacks.
"They ate in the same restaurant where we were having the surveillance here today, which was an irony that was not lost on me," McCarthy said. "I think it's a coincidence."