Severna Park Man Indicted For Murder Of Army Officer At U.Md

COLLEGE PARK, MD — A former University of Maryland student has been indicted on a charge of murder of 2nd Lt. Richard Collins III, a 23-year-old Bowie State University student who was fatally stabbed while visiting the university May 20.

A Prince George's County grand jury indicted Sean Christopher Urbanski, 22, of Severna Park Thursday. A jury could convict him of first- or second-degree murder, manslaughter or find Urbanski not guilty.

Collins, who was set to graduate from Bowie State University that week, was visiting the University of Maryland with friends on May 20. Police were called to the campus at Regents Drive near Montgomery Hall at around 3 a.m. to a report of an assault with a knife.

"Officers immediately responded to the area and located the male victim on the sidewalk suffering from serious injuries," the university statement reads. "Officers provided medical assistance until paramedics arrived. The victim was taken to a local hospital where he was later pronounced deceased by medical staff."

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Prince George's County Police later stopped Urbanski near that location and identified him as the person behind the attack.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Urbanski "warned" Collins, who had just been commissioned as an officer in the Army on Thursday after four years in the ROTC program, to "step left, step left if you know what's good for you" based on charging documents. Collins reportedly refused, and Urbanski stabbed him in the chest.

Initially, police didn't think race had anything to do with the attack, but that changed when they found out Urbanski was a member of a racist Facebook group called "Alt-Reich Nation."

"When I look at the information that's contained on that website, suffice it to say that it's despicable, it shows extreme bias against women, Latinos, persons of Jewish faith and especially African-Americans," University Police Chief David Mitchell said, according to the Sun.

Urbanski was a student at University of Maryland at the time Collins was murdered.

The University of Maryland had a difficult spring when it comes to racial incidents. Earlier in May, police at the university investigated a noose found in a fraternity house as a possible hate crime.

Image via University of Maryland