Department Of Homeland Security Officer May Be Linked To Deadly Shootings In Maryland

Police say a Department of Homeland Security police officer suspected of killing his wife Thursday, is also a suspect in two shootings in suburban Maryland on Friday.

At least two people were killed and two others injured Friday in separate incidents outside two shopping centers, according to the Montgomery County Police Department.

The Montgomery County Police Department said Eulalio Tordil, 62, has been taken into custody.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesman confirmed to NPR that Tordil is an officer with the agency's Federal Protective Service. NPR's Philip Ewing, citing the spokesman, reports that Tordil "was placed on 'administrative leave' earlier this year after 'a protective order' was issued against him and that his supervisors took away his badge, duty weapon and other credentials."

The Prince George's County Police Department identified Tordil as the suspect in the shooting death of his "estranged wife," 44-year-old Gladys Tordil, in the parking lot of a high school in Beltsville, Md.

NPR's David Welna reports that Montgomery County police are investigating whether that shooting is related to the incidents at the two shopping centers.

Police said in a press briefing Friday that they responded to a report of a shooting at Montgomery Mall at about 11 a.m. ET and found two men and a woman injured in the parking lot. One man died after being transferred to a hospital, and the other was critically injured. The woman sustained injuries that are not life-threatening, police say.

Not long after, a woman was shot dead in the parking lot of a mall in the nearby Aspen Hill region. Police tweeted that Tordil had been arrested in the Aspen Hill area.

After Tordil's arrest, Montgomery County Police Chief J.Thomas Manger told reporters about the surveillance that led to it. He said plainclothes officers were patrolling the Aspen Hill area. Then:

"One of the plainclothes officers observed a vehicle, a silver vehicle, that matched the description from the homicide that occurred in Prince George's County last night. ... We had a description of the suspect in the homicide last night that was in that vehicle, and the plainclothes officers spotted that individual at the Dunkin Donuts in the Northgate Shopping Center in Aspen Hill. They had this individual under surveillance, and when the individual walked back to his car, plainclothes officers were able to take him into custody without incident."

Manger confirmed witness reports that Tordil ate lunch for an hour at a Boston Market restaurant and visited several other businesses before he was apprehended.

Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said that he anticipates formal charges to be lodged against Tordil "within several hours." He adds that he'll be formally arraigned on Monday.

Montgomery County public schools were placed on a lockdown order, which has since been lifted.