Ex-prison guard held in NSA, other D.C.-area shootings
FORT MEADE, Md. — A man suspected of five shootings in Maryland, including a building at the National Security Agency, is in custody at a hospital, police said Wednesday.
Hong Young, 35, of Beltsville, Md., a former correctional officer, is charged with attempted first-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, firearm in the use of a violent felony crime, handgun in vehicle and reckless endangerment for a Feb. 24 incident on Arundel Mills Boulevard in Hanover, Md.
In addition to those incidents, police say Young also is believed to be responsible for shootings at a Walmart in Laurel, Md., an AMC movie theater in Columbia, Md., and a shooting incident on the Maryland Intercounty Connector where a vehicle was hit by gunfire.
Law enforcement officials from several jurisdictions worked on the case. Prince George's County police tied the evidence from the shootings together after running lab tests.
"This case truly was good old-fashioned police work at its finest," said Anne Arundel County Police Chief Tim Altomare on Wednesday. "Officers shared information and ultimately located and removed this person from the community before he took someone's life."
Altomare said the shootings evoked memories for officers of two snipers who killed 10 people in 2002 in the Washington area. Despite the fear created by the latest shootings, Altomare said everyone is "alive and well."
"I'm struck by the fact most of us here probably in some way, shape or form, are aware of the events 15 years ago with the D.C. sniper case," Altomare said at a news conference while flanked by officers from the FBI and Howard and Prince George's counties. "As soon as we started to hear about the possibility of this stuff being linked, we kicked every effort we had into overdrive."
Police have not yet determined the motive behind the shootings, but say they don't appear to be related to domestic terrorism.
"We don't know exactly what the motive is behind this person taking these actions," said Lt. T.J. Smith, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel Police Department.
While conducting surveillance Tuesday night in connection with the Arundel Mills Boulevard shooting that injured a 61-year-old victim — apparently chosen at random — officers saw a vehicle matching the description of the one used in the shooting and pulled the driver over.
Police found .380 shell casings in plain view, along with a .380 semi-automatic handgun inside the blue 1999 Lincoln Town Car. The gun was the same caliber as the one used in the shots fired incidents, police said. Ballistics testing indicated a match.
Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stephen Moyer said Young was a correctional officer with the department from January 2012 and resigned in May 2014.
"There was nothing significant about his employment," said Moyer. "He did resign and I've had my staff vet that file and there is nothing significant in that file."
Smith described Young as "hiding in plain sight. He's driving the same vehicle he's caught on surveillance camera. ... He didn't appear to be hiding. It didn't appear to be something like we saw 15 years ago when they were lying in wait, trying to blend in."
A truck traveling eastbound on the Intercounty Connector was struck by gunfire Tuesday afternoon, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. One of the occupants of the truck was injured by broken glass when bullets hit the windshield of the truck. The other occupant was hit by a bullet, but the bullet was stopped by his clothing.
Nelson Tree Experts confirmed it was one of their trucks that was hit and that the truck was moving at the time.
A short time later, gunshots struck a NSA building several miles away. No one was injured in that incident.
Police posted a statement about the arrest on the department's Facebook page:
"We believe the subject responsible for shooting incidents on the ICC, near Fort Meade Army installation and other locations around the Baltimore-Washington metro area in the last two weeks is in custody."
Contributing: The Associated Press