6 Things To Know About Maryland Shooting Suspect

EDGEWOOD, MD — The Maryland man accused of shooting six people Wednesday, three of them fatally, liked peach mango tea. Radee Labeeb Prince, 37, used to stop in daily at Island Spice on Emmorton Park Road for his peach mango tea, according to a server at the Jamaican restaurant.

“I wouldn’t have ever expected him to do anything like this,” said Labresha Waters, who works at the eatery across the street from where Prince allegedly gunned down five co-workers Wednesday morning. The restaurant is located in a strip of businesses adjacent to the office park containing Advanced Granite Solutions, where Prince worked and the mass shooting occurred before 9 a.m. Authorities say he then drove to Wilmington, Delaware, where he shot the owner of a car dealership before 11 a.m.; the victim is expected to survive. He was arrested after 7 p.m. in Newark, Delaware.

Aside from ordering his tea, Waters said that she noticed Prince seemed quiet but had a friendly demeanor and joked with staff. (For more local news, sign up for news alerts from Bel Air Patch, and find your local Maryland Patch. If you have an iPhone, get the free Patch app.)

Watch: Maryland-Delaware Shooting Suspect Arrested

As Patch spoke with Waters on Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement vehicles filled the parking lot outside, which was cordoned off with crime tape. The streets teemed with news crews. And stories with Prince’s face and GMC Acadia flashed on TV screens inside the quiet restaurant amidst the manhunt for the suspected gunman described as "armed and dangerous."

“He’s a quiet guy who keeps to himself,” Waters said. “But he loved that tea,” she said. “Everyone does.”

The last time he came to the restaurant, however, Waters said Prince did two things that were unusual. He ordered food, which he never did, “and he left without paying,” she said.

SEE ALSO:

• Victims Identified In Edgewood Mass Shooting
• Suspected Maryland Shooter In Custody; 3 Dead, 3 Injured

Here are some other things to know about Prince:

He was described by some as “quiet” and by others as “angry.”

The server at Island Spice said that Prince was “quiet."

His neighbor of more than three years in Elkton told The Baltimore Sun that he and Prince shoveled snow together in the winter, and he was "shocked" by the shootings because he "only saw [Prince] smiling and laughing." Another neighbor told The Sun that Prince was unapproachable and could be "combative."

His former employer at JPS Marble and Granite in Forest Hill said Prince "cursed and yelled about employment benefits," according to the Associated Press (AP). The employer filed for a peace order, stating that Prince was a “big guy” who was threatening. Prince is 5 feet 9 inches tall and 180 pounds, court records show.

The widow of one of the victims in Wednesday's mass shooting said her husband told her Prince was "always angry" and had an explosive temper at work.

He worked in Edgewood, Maryland. The fatal shootings in which Prince is accused took place at Advanced Granite Solutions, a business that manufactures, designs and installs countertops.

Prince had been employed at the location in the 2100 block of Emmorton Park Road for four months, according to Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler. He worked as a machine operator, the AP reported.

Months earlier, Prince was fired after allegedly punching a co-worker at JPS Marble and Granite in Forest Hill, said the AP.

Police said he used a handgun in the shootings. Five people were shot in the Edgewood business where Prince was scheduled to work on Wednesday, according to Gahler, who said a handgun was the murder weapon. Three of the victims were deceased, while two were reportedly in critical condition.

A sixth victim was shot and injured in Wilmington, Delaware, at a used car dealership, police said.

Police recovered a 380 firearm that Prince allegedly discarded during a foot chase in Newark, Delaware, where Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents apprehended him as he walked through a neighborhood around 7:05 p.m.

The arrest followed an hours-long manhunt, after the shootings in Edgewood occurred at 8:58 a.m. and in Wilmington at 10:46 a.m.

Upon seeing the agents Wednesday night in Delaware, Prince allegedly threw the gun. Police said it was found 75 feet from where he was arrested without incident.

It was not the first time Prince was found with a gun by law enforcement. In March 2015, Prince was charged in Maryland with illegal possession of a firearm and possessing a firearm as a felon, according to online court records, which show the charges were dropped that summer in Cecil County. The state's attorney declined to comment on why, The Sun reported Thursday.

He has a long rap sheet. Prince had 42 arrests, according to Wilmington Police Chief Robert J. Tracy, who said many were for violating probation and failing to appear.

Prince had few convictions despite his arrest record, according to the Delaware News Journal, which reported he was sentenced to a total of three years in jail for burglary and theft cases in 2002 and 2003.

Since then, he racked up charges for offensive touching in 2014 and assault in 2016, the newspaper reported, noting the man shot in Wilmington Wednesday was the victim in the assault case.

As of Thursday, Prince was reportedly being held in connection with the Wilmington shooting on $2.1 million bond, with additional charges pending in Harford County.

In Maryland, in addition to the 2015 weapons charges that were dropped, Prince's previous record mainly consisted of civil cases, including landlord disputes and a peace order filed against him by his former employer. The disputes were resolved, and the peace order was denied.

He also accumulated many traffic violations involving several vehicles. He was pulled over mainly in Cecil County, driving a Cadillac, Ford and Dodge over the years.

His oldest conviction in Maryland was in 2000 for violating a noise ordinance prohibiting loud music, resulting in a municipal fine paid to Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore, according to online court records.

He was late with his rent and had various addresses. Court records show that Prince had an address in the 100 block of Clinton Street in Elkton in Cecil County. He has lived in a three-bedroom townhouse there since November 2014, according to ABC News, which reported despite a tendency to be late with the rent, the landlord said Prince and his girlfriend always ended up paying.

As recently as September, Prince's landlord in Elkton filed a petition to get him and his girlfriend to pay their rent, according to court records. Seven times since last October, the landlord had also lodged failure-to-pay complaints.

Wilmington Police said that Prince also had an address in Delaware, in the 500 block of Kiamensi Road, and his relatives live in the Wilmington area.

“This individual has lived in several different places,” Wilmington Police Chief Tracy said Wednesday night after Prince was taken into custody at 7:05 p.m. near Newark, Delaware. "A lot of family members, a lot of associates, a lot of arrest locations."

In 2014, Prince was in Des Moines, Washington, where court records show he was accused of leaving the scene after a crash.

The Edgewood crime scene's location off Interstate 95 and Prince's various ties made the search for him an expansive one, with police on the lookout in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well as Maryland and Delaware.

Billboards with Prince's face and vehicle showed up along Interstate 95 in multiple states during Wednesday’s manhunt.

He knew his victims and had been accused of workplace violence before. “How do you get into a mind of a person that’s capable of shooting five people that are coworkers?...What precipitated that?” Tracy said. “The thing that we did know is that he knew every one of the people that he shot. And he had some type of relationship. And they knew him...This is more targeted, rather than a random shooter.”

His former employer at JPS Marble and Granite, in requesting a peace order, said that Prince was "very aggressive," returning four times to the business after he was fired for punching a colleague because “the other guy was saying some things he didn’t like,” according to The Sun.

The Feb. 28 request was denied in Harford County District Court because there was no statutory basis for relief, court records show.

Image of Radee Prince courtesy of Harford County Sheriff's Office. Other photos by Elizabeth Janney.