Sunday, May 15, 2016

Jumping Back to Last Week

"Police hunt for suspect in killing of Quincy College professor" by Laura Crimaldi and Alexandra Koktsidis Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent  May 07, 2016

PLYMOUTH — Professor Vibeke Rasmussen always showed up for her teaching job at Quincy College in Plymouth, where she joined the adjunct faculty seven years ago.

When she didn’t report for class Friday morning, the school called Rasmussen’s daughter, who reported her mother’s absence to Plymouth police.

Officers arrived at Rasmussen’s apartment on Tideview Path around 1 p.m., where they found the door unlocked. Inside, the 76-year-old Rasmussen was dead, having suffered 35 stab wounds to her face, neck, and shoulders, an official said.

The discovery sparked a manhunt for Rasmussen’s 24-year-old neighbor, Tyler Hagmaier, who has a history of mental illness and “criminal occurrences with the police,” said Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz.

Police issued a bulletin for him and his silver Prius Friday and contacted his family in Western Massachusetts, the district attorney said.

Around 10 p.m. Friday, officers found Hagmaier’s vehicle, but no sign of him, Cruz said. His Prius had been abandoned on the French King Bridge, which spans the Connecticut River in Gill, a town of about 1,500 people in the northwest corner of the state, Cruz said.

Witnesses told investigators that they heard a splash around the same time police found the Prius, but searches of the river on Friday and Saturday did not turn up Hagmaier, the district attorney said.

“We believe that he may have jumped, but as of right now . . . we do not know if that’s true,” Cruz said. “There’s been no body that’s been recovered.”

The search of the river is expected to resume Sunday and Cruz said the public should not approach Hagmaier if they encounter him.

“I believe he’s highly dangerous,” Cruz said.

Hagmaier has a history of threatening to commit suicide....

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"Man sought in professor’s stabbing faced charges in earlier knifing" by Laura Crimaldi Globe Staff  May 11, 2016

GARDNER — The man sought in last week’s stabbing death of a Quincy College professor in her Plymouth apartment moved to that town about five years ago after being charged with knifing a neighbor in Montague, court records show.

A judge endorsed Tyler Hagmaier’s request to move in with his grandparents in Plymouth as a condition of release on bail after a 2011 attack that left a 41-year-old man with a severe cut on his chest, according to Greenfield District Court files.

Investigators have been searching for Hagmaier, 24, since Friday, when his Toyota Prius was found on the French King Bridge, which spans the Connecticut River in Gill, a town of about 1,500 people in northwestern Massachusetts.

Police allege Hagmaier murdered his neighbor Vibeke Rasmussen, 76, who was found Friday after she did not report to her teaching job at Quincy College’s Plymouth campus.

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has said investigators believe Hagmaier jumped into the river, but there has been no sign of him. A State Police helicopter searched the river twice Tuesday, and over the weekend, officers scanned the water using sonar.

Strong currents have prevented divers from entering the river, though officials said they plan to reexamine that possibility Wednesday. Officers in Gill have scoured riverside cabins, visited the homes of Hagmaier’s former friends, and tracked three reported sightings of him, said Gill Police Chief David Hastings.

Hagmaier’s grandparents moved to Plymouth when he was 15 years old, according to court documents. He lived with them while attending his junior and senior years of high school there, records show. It is unclear whether he was still living with his grandparents at the time of the killing.

Within the last year, officers used a bean bag round to disarm Hagmaier after he threatened to harm himself, Plymouth Police Chief Michael Botieri has said. No charges were filed.

Court records show Hagmaier moved in with his grandparents while being prosecuted for allegedly attacking his neighbor in Montague on Nov. 1, 2011.

A man said a motion-activated floodlight was activated at 3:24 a.m., and he went outside to investigate, according to a report written by a Montague police detective, Lee R. Laster.

Outside, the man encountered a neighbor, later identified as Hagmaier, who stabbed him with a 10-inch serrated knife, Laster wrote.

Laster said he found Hagmaier lying face down with his hands behind his back.

“My life is over, I want to die,” Hagmaier said, according to the report. “I started breaking into [expletive] and then I stabbed this guy.”

After Hagmaier was arrested, a court-ordered mental health evaluation found that he suffered from substance abuse, depression, and suicidal impulses, court records show.

On March 13, 2012, Hagmaier admitted to sufficient facts on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and was put on probation for two years, records show. The charge was later dismissed.

Prosecutors also requested a trespassing accusation be dropped and declined to pursue an attempted murder charge initially filed against Hagmaier, court records show.

Attorney Robert J. Bray, who successfully argued for Hagmaier to be released on bail, declined to comment Tuesday.

Hagmaier faced criminal charges again in 2013 after police say he lit a fire in a Heywood Hospital exam room in Gardner, court records show.

Two days after the fire, on May 30, 2013, Hagmaier allegedly fled from a state trooper who pulled him over in Westminster, court files show. Police pursued Hagmaier through seven towns until his car crashed, according to a police report filed in Gardner District Court.

After the crash, Hagmaier slit his neck and left wrist with a box cutter, the report said. He was taken to a local hospital and then flown to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, the report said.

In the fire case, Hagmaier admitted to sufficient facts to vandalizing property on March 14, 2014, and was put on probation for a year.

The same day, Hagmaier admitted to sufficient facts on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and operating under the influence of liquor for the case involving the police pursuit, court records show.

He was placed on probation, lost his license for 45 days, ordered to stay away from drugs and alcohol, undergo screenings, and continue with his medications and treatment.

Hagmaier’s probation ended Sept. 14, 2015, records say.

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And that was the last I saw of him in the Globe.

Also seeSlain Quincy College professor ‘wanted others to succeed’

Maryland Mayhem

"Federal security officer faces murder charges in fatal shooting spree" by Matthew Barakat Associated Press  May 07, 2016

ROCKVILLE, Md.— A federal security officer is facing multiple murder charges in a shooting spree across three Maryland parking lots that left three people dead.

The shooting spree began with a domestic slaying in an unusually public place, and comparisons to the 2002 D.C. sniper shootings leapt immediately to the minds of area residents.

62-year-old Eulalio Tordil of Adelphi’s arrest took place just steps away from a Michaels craft store that was the first target of snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

Tordil worked for the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties.

A Manchurian candidate?

He was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him when his wife said he had threatened to harm her if she left him, The Washington Post reported.

Tordil subjected their children to ‘‘intense-military-like discipline,’’ like push-ups and detention in a dark closet, according to the order.

The protective service said Tordil’s weapon, badge, and credentials were taken when he was placed on leave. Police found a weapon in his car but did not describe it.

Police said Tordil’s spree began when he shot and killed his estranged wife as she waited to pick up her children in the parking lot of High Point High School in Beltsville. He also shot and wounded a bystander who tried to intervene, police said.

Wouldn't have happened in Texas.

Detectives worked through the night, trying to use cellphone technology to pinpoint Tordil’s location, but they weren’t able to catch him. The next day, according to police, he struck again, this time apparently choosing his victims at random.

On Friday morning, police said, Tordil shot three people outside Montgomery Mall, an upscale mall in Bethesda that sits off the Capital Beltway.

Unlike the 2002 sniper shootings that stretched over a period of weeks and left 10 dead, police had an idea about who was responsible for Friday’s shootings.

Hmmmmmmmm!

Plainclothes officers spotted Tordil’s car at a strip mall across the street from the supermarket, and they watched him for more than an hour as he moved from store to store, eating at Boston Market and getting coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts, police said.

This is starting to stink.

Fearing that he wanted to provoke officers into shooting him, police waited him out until he returned to his car. Then they boxed him in and drew their guns. He emerged from the car with his hands up.

‘‘We did not want to endanger anyone and have a shootout when we took him into custody,’’ Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said. ‘‘That may have been what he wanted.’’

Instead, Tordil will have to answer in court for the string of carnage attributed to him....

They didn't seem too worried about him committing more, what with the waiting around.

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Related:

"Gary Cochran of Sterling, Va., said in a telephone interview Sunday evening that Eulalio Tordil of Adelphi was ‘‘always smiling and very polite,’’ and he was stunned that the federal police officer is accused of a two-day shooting spree in suburban Maryland parking lots."

It's always the same damn script.

"Police say the shootings began Thursday when Tordil, 62, fatally shot his estranged wife Gladys, a chemistry teacher, in a high school parking lot. A bystander was wounded. Authorities say the shootings continued Friday at two other parking lots, one outside Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, and the other at a shopping center about 5 miles away. Police said those shootings, including one in which two other people were wounded, were likely botched carjackings."

Time to hop forward again.

UPDATE: Suspect in Plymouth professor’s slaying wrote confession note