Target Store Shooter Faces Life in Prison

A Hagerstown man faces life in prison without parole after he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his former girlfriend as she lay wounded in a Germantown Target store parking lot.

Mariam Folashade Adebayo, 24, of Germantown was gunned down by her ex-boyfriend in June in the parking lot of the Germantown Target store. She died at a local hospital from her injuries.

Her former boyfriend, Donald Wayne Bricker Jr., 28, pleaded guilty Dec. 2 to the murder, reports WTOP.

Detectives believe the suspect and victim met in the shopping center to talk. The couple had dated for about six months and recently ended their relationship, police say.

Montgomery County Police say Bricker repeatedly texted Adebayo, demanding to know if she was dating someone after she ended their relationship. Adebayo agreed to meet him in public but they argued while sitting Adebayo’s car. When she left the vehicle, Bricker followed her and shot Adebayo, then stood over the wounded woman and shot her in the face.

Mavis Castillo, Adebayo’s aunt, told Montgomery Community Media that her niece graduated in 2013 from University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in public health. Adebayo had volunteered in the community, and was looking for a position in her field.

Adebayo’s best friend, from high school, Stephanie Evans remembered the victim as her sunshine.

“She always saw the good in people, and unfortunately it was what led her to the passing,” Evans told the media outlet at a June vigil for her slain friend.

Bricker, a registered sex offender, was barred from owning firearms because of his felony record, but bought a replica black powder revolver through the mail, which is legal in Maryland, WTOP reports.

Bricker will be sentenced on Feb. 26.

»Photo of Mariam Folashade Adebayo, courtesy of Montgomery Community Media