Beltway Shooting Spree: Eulalio Tordil's Miranda Rights Violated Prosecutor Says

BETHESDA, MD — Police officers likely violated the Miranda rights of accused Beltway shooter Eulalio Tordil when he was taken into custody on May 6, 2016, for the murders of a man at Westfield Montgomery Mall and a woman who was a carjacking target at a Silver Spring Giant store. Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said at a court hearing Thursday that his office will probably acknowledge that police improperly talked to Tordil as he was arrested in a shopping mall parking lot

According to Maryland online court records, Eulalio Tordil, 63, of Adelphi, faces two charges of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and several firearms charges for shooting in Montgomery County. Tordil, a former federal security officer, faces a life sentence in prison if he is convicted of murder.

One day before the Montgomery County shootings, prosecutors say Tordil gunned down his estranged wife, Gladys Tordil, a teacher, as she waited for her daughters in a Riverdale high school parking lot. She had received a protective order that forbid her husband from coming near her Prince George's County home, workplace or children.

In all, police say Eulalio Tordil killed three people and injured three others.

He was schedule to go to trial Nov. 28, 2016, but both sides agreed to push back the trial to Oct. 16, 2017 as they await the results of DNA tests from the multiple crime scenes. Prince George’s County prosecutors have said they will wait until Tordil’s case is resolved in Montgomery County, before indicting him for his wife’s killing.

After Thursday's hearing, McCarthy told reporters that “everybody knows this from watching TV, it’s improper to continue to talk to someone after they’ve made a request for a lawyer,” WTOP reports.

If a judge decides police posed questions to Tordil as he was taken into custody, prosecutors would not be allowed to use Tordil’s statements to those officer at trial. But, Tordil could be cross-examined about a recorded interview with investigators if he takes the stand in his own defense.

And McCarthy will ask a judge to let him introduce testimony about Tordil's alleged slaying of his wife, saying the two-day crime wave began with the deadly shooting of Gladys Tordil at her daughters' school.

Montgomery County Victim Speaks

Carl Unger was at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda on May 6, 2016, to have lunch with his friend, Malcom Winffel, 45, of Boyds. Both men were shot, allegedly by Eulalio Tordil, when they tried to help a woman whose car Tordil was trying to steal, police said.

"He looked dead at us and was smiling before he started shooting," Unger told NBC Washington.

Tordil is charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shootings of Winffel and Claudina Modina, 65, of Montgomery County. Modina, a nurse, was shot in a second failed carjacking attempt at the Giant store in Silver Spring, authorities say.

The carjacking victim outside the Macy’s store ran between Unger and Winffel, which is when Tordil began to fire his handgun. Unger was shot four times: Once in the shoulder, twice in the back and once in the foot. He suffered a collapsed lung as a result of one of the bullets in his back and still has a bullet in his shoulder, according to his family.

While he is home recovering, Unger will be out of work for months and has exhausted all of his paid, sick and vacation leave, says the family. A GoFundMe page created to help support the family and to cover the mounting hospital bills has so far raised about $25,000.

The unidentified woman was also shot, but survived. Unger’s buddy, Winfell, died in the rampage.

“These men are heroes. Malcom Winfell gave his life for somebody he doesn’t know in order to protect her from a predator,” Russ Hamill, chief of detectives for the Montgomery County Police Department, said in May.

Police say both carjacking attempts failed because the victims fought back, and in the mall case, the two men intervened. Tordil talked to police after he was arrested but didn’t seem remorseful, Hamill said.

SEE ALSO:

• Maryland Woman Killed By Husband During Shooting Spree Asked Court For Protective Order: Police
• High School Slaying: Fundraiser Set Up For Girls; Victim Had Stayaway Order; Husband Arrested
• High Point High School Shooting: Husband Sought in Wife's Death
• Washington Beltway Shootings: 4 Shot, 2 Killed in Mall and Grocery; Federal Officer in Custody

String of Shootings Started at High School

Police say Eulalio Tordil shot his estranged wife May 5, 2016, before turning the gun on a Good Samaritan who had, moments earlier, noticed the couple struggling and asked Gladys Tordil if everything was OK.
Gladys Tordil was a chemistry teacher at Parkdale High School in Riverdale.

Following a March 2016 court order in a custody case, Eulalio Tordil turned over his federally issued service weapon, as well as six other firearms. He was also told to stay away from his wife, her home and her workplace.

Investigators say Eulalio Tordil followed his wife to High Point High School, got out of his car and confronted Gladys Tordil as she sat in her vehicle.

“I’m her husband,” he told the bystander before the shooting began.

»Photo of shooting suspect Eulalio Tordil courtesy of Montgomery County Police