Background: The Cogir Potomac Senior Living facility in Potomac, Maryland (WTTG/YouTube). Inset left: Maurquise Emillo James (Montgomery County Department of Police). Inset right: Robert Fuller Jr. (C-Span/Augusta Weekend/WRC-TV/YouTube).
A worker at a Maryland senior living center is accused of fatally shooting an 87-year-old millionaire resident and then continuing to work at the facility for several days.
Maurquise Emillo James, 22, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Robert Fuller Jr., the Montgomery County Department of Police announced. As of Wednesday, the defendant was being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit awaiting a bond hearing.
James was a medicine technician at the Cogir Potomac senior living facility in Potomac, where Fuller was staying, Montgomery County Police Captain Sean Gagan said during a Wednesday press conference streamed by Washington, D.C., Fox affiliate WTTG. According to police, James told officers that on the night of Feb. 13, he "administered medicine to the victim and his roommate, as per usual."
The following day, Fuller was found dead.
Montgomery County police officers and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service personnel were contacted about a "medical emergency" and arrived at the Cogir Potomac assisted living facility at about 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 14. They discovered Fuller "unresponsive" inside his bedroom with a "contact gunshot wound to the head."
The shooting victim was pronounced dead, and his death was ruled a homicide. No gun was found at the scene.
Detectives began investigating the apparent crime, and the senior living facility provided them with surveillance footage of the complex. At about 5:05 a.m. on Feb. 14, "an individual was seen walking through a courtyard outside the facility" and coming back in using an exterior door, Gagan said.
"Approximately 10 minutes later, the same suspect once again appears, this time through the same exterior door before running outside of the view of the surveillance cameras that captured the courtyard," the police captain went on. He said detectives went back to the facility "to investigate the doorway where the individual had come and gone around the time of the murder" and discovered that "the door alarm sensor had been tampered with."
The investigators also reportedly found "a small folded paper towel" that appeared to have been constructed "to prop open that exterior door." The detectives spoke with the alarm technicians at the Cogir complex, learning that the last day the door was functional was on Jan. 9 — the same day James used the exterior doorway, and cops say he was "the only person on camera to leave that facility" using that door.
Police released a photo and video clip of the individual using that walkway on the night of Feb. 13 into Feb. 14 to the public for help finding the suspect. They say a different Cogir employee contacted them on Monday and said that on one of their routine overnight checks this month, they found James inside — despite his shift having already ended.
When the employee inquired about a door sensor going off and said they needed to notify their supervisor, James allegedly "fled." The staff member and a security guard investigated, finding that a black napkin had fallen from the doorway and that there was also a small white paper towel similar to the one police found.
Investigators also gained insight into the case from Fuller's roommate at the facility, Washington, D.C., NBC affiliate WRC reported. James was responsible for giving Fuller and other residents their medications, and on the night of Feb. 13, the roommate said James gave Fuller his medicine as usual — but then came back later to ask if the medication had kicked in, which was "very odd" because he didn't normally do that.
On Tuesday morning at about 3:30 a.m., a Maryland state trooper pulled over a silver Infiniti with no tags in West Baltimore. As the trooper approached the vehicle, a man "matching" the description of James allegedly started shooting. The trooper was "not seriously injured," the Montgomery County Police Department said.
James was later arrested in downtown Rockville "after he attempted to run away" from officers, police said. He was also reportedly charged with attempted murder in the alleged shooting of the trooper.
Fuller was a philanthropist and prominent attorney in Maine for many years, Maine State Rep. Bill Bridgeo told WRC. He was also reportedly a retired Navy Reserve officer and donated millions in the Pine Tree State before moving to Maryland a few years ago with his wife because she had family in the area.
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