Delaware

Suspect in 2-State Shooting Spree Faces Attempted Murder Charges in Delaware, Held on $2.1M Bail

Radee Labeeb Prince, 37, allegedly shot five co-workers at a Maryland granite company before heading to Wilmington, Del. where he shot a man at a car dealership, police said

What to Know

  • Radee Labeeb Prince, 37, was arraigned on attempted murder & weapons charges in Delaware Thursday morning. Bail was set at $2.1 million.
  • Prince shot five co-workers, killing three, at a Maryland granite company, then drove to Wilmington and shot a car dealer, police said.
  • The motive for Prince's rampage has not been revealed. He was prohibited from possessing a gun.

A Delaware judge has ordered the man accused of killing three people and wounding three others during a two-state shooting spree to remain jailed on $2.1 million cash bail.

Radee Labeeb Prince was arraigned via video in Delaware Thursday morning on attempted murder and three weapons charges.

Prince was prohibited from possessing a gun after being found guilty of third-degree burglary in New Castle County, Delaware, in 2003, police said in court documents obtained by NBC10.

A preliminary hearing was set for Oct. 31.

It's unclear when Prince will be sent back to Maryland to face possible murder charges.

The 37-year-old shot five co-workers at a kitchen countertop company in Maryland Wednesday morning before driving to Wilmington, Delaware, and opening fire on a man with whom he had "beefs" in the past, wounding him, police said.

The shooting rampage set off a multi-state manhunt. Police cruisers were stationed in medians along the Interstate 95 Northeast corridor, and overhead highway signs displayed a description of Prince's sport utility vehicle and its Delaware license plate. The FBI assisted state and local authorities in the manhunt.

Prince was arrested by ATF agents Wednesday night after his unoccupied getaway vehicle was found next to Glasgow High School in Newark, Delaware. Police say Prince was spotted by a witness leaving the vehicle and walking toward the high school. The witness then contacted law enforcement. 

Prince was spotted walking nearby and taken into custody by the three ATF agents after a brief foot chase, police said.

During the chase, Prince allegedly discarded a .380 firearm which was later recovered by police, according to Wilmington Police Chief Robert J. Tracy. No one was hurt during the arrest.

"A coordinated effort brought this to a very successful conclusion on a very, very bad day," Chief Tracy said.

The rampage began at about 9 a.m. Wednesday when Prince reportedly walked into Advanced Granite Solutions, which designs and installs countertops, and opened fire on is co-workers. 

Barak Caba, the company's owner, told the Associated Press that Prince worked there as a machine operator for the past four months. He was scheduled to work Wednesday.

Five staffers were hit. Three were killed, police said. The two victims who survived were left in critical condition.

The sheriff's office said Wednesday night on its Facebook page that the people who died were Bayarsaikhan Tudev, 53, of Virginia; Jose Hidalgo Romero, 34, of Aberdeen, Maryland, and Enis Mrvoljak, 48, of Dundalk, Maryland. The company set up the Edgewood Donations fund to support the victims families.

Prince then sped 51 miles north in his black 2008 GMC Acadia to Wilmington where he confronted an acquaintance, Jason Baul, investigators said. 

Baul was working at his used car dealership, 28th Street Auto Sales and Service, along the 2800 block of Governor Printz Boulevard when Prince shot him twice around 10:30 a.m., police said.

Prince shot Baul in the head and body, but Baul is expected to survive, police said.

Prince's SUV was still near the second shooting scene when Wilmington police arrived. Baul pointed out the SUV to police but Prince sped away before police could chase him, Tracy said.

The motive for both shootings remains unclear, though Tracy said Prince "knew the people he wanted to shoot."

"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 news conference following Prince's arrest.

Co-workers said Prince 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 said they were only feet away as Prince opened fire and killed their three co-workers.

"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."

Friends and relatives of Baul said they don't recognize Prince and didn’t know why he allegedly targeted Baul. Investigators, however, said they believe Prince targeted Baul because of a previous issue related to a criminal case. 

The Baltimore Sun reports, citing court documents, that Prince has had problems with employers before. He was fired from a job earlier this year after he allegedly punched a co-worker in the face and threatened other staffers, the Sun reported.

The assaulted co-worker tried to get a restraining order against Prince in February, but a Harford County District Court judge denied the order, saying the case didn't meet the required burden of proof.

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 didn't "officially" live at the Wilmington address, but stayed there "on and off when he had issues."

"He lives in Maryland," Melton said. Court records show he most recently lived in Elkton, Maryland.

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 faced several gun charges in March 2015 in Cecil County, including being a felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a handgun in vehicle. However, the charges were dropped about three months later. It's not clear why.

Wilmington police said Prince was arrested 42 times in Delaware alone and had 15 felony convictions there.

In King County, Washington, in 2014, he was cited for leaving the scene of an accident and driving with a suspended license. Court records also showed that he was required to undergo drug and alcoholism counseling at the time.Prince racked up four traffic citations in King County in 2012 and 2013, mostly for speeding.

"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.

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