Man Charged In 2-Day, 2-County Deadly Shooting Spree Pleads Guilty
BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) -- Eulalio Tordil, the man charged in a deadly, two-day shooting rampage spanning two Maryland counties last year appeared in a Montgomery County courtroom Tuesday afternoon for a plea hearing.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Tordil also faces charges in Prince George's County, where he allegedly shot and killed his estranged wife.
He now faces life in prison without parole. Sentencing is set for July.
As part of Tordil's guilty plea, he fully admits wrongdoing.
WJZ's Mike Hellgren was in court Tuesday, where Tordil said very little, just that he understood the charges against him, and he was pleading guilty.
He now faces life in prison without parole. Sentencing is set for July.
911 calls were played, along with video of some of the shootings as they unfolded.
"This was a man who knew there would be innocent lives lost. He even wrote in his musings he was apologizing to his potential victims before they were victims," said Montgomery Co. State's Attorney John McCarthy. "He was talking about taking his wife's life and writing to his daughter saying it did not have to end this way, but he knew it was going to end this way."
Police say Tordil, then a 62-year-old federal protective services officer, gunned down Gladys Tordil outside High Point High School in Beltsville where she was waiting to pick up her daughters on the afternoon of May 5, 2016. He allegedly injured another man before fleeing the scene.
Gladys was a beloved chemistry teacher at Parkdale High School in Riverdale.
The next morning, in neighboring Montgomery County, shots were fired outside Westfield Montgomery mall in Bethesda as police say Tordil tried to carjack a woman. Two men ran to help, including 45-year-old Malcom Winffel, who died at the hospital after being shot.
Minutes later, there was another carjacking attempt outside a Giant grocery store in Aspen Hill. Claudina Molina struggled with Tordil, knocking off his glasses before she was shot to death. Diminished eyesight helped police catch him.
Hours later, officers found Tordil in a strip mall across the street from the one where Molina was killed. Police say he was eating in a Boston Market restaurant. Undercover detectives pinned him in his Hyundai Elantra rental car and arrested him without incident.
"Because his glasses had been lost in the struggle, he didn't feel he could adequately drive," said McCarthy, in the aftermath of the violence spree.
The motive for this appears to be financial, as credit card debt was out of control.
According to records, Tordil was placed on administrative leave in March 2016 after Gladys issued a protective order against him. Just weeks before the shooting spree began, she alleged he threatened to harm her if she ever left him.
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