ROCKVILLE — The federal police officer charged with the murders of three people in a shooting spree had access to additional weapons and roamed the D.C. region for hours after the first shooting at a high school in Beltsville, a Maryland prosecutor said Monday.
Investigators say they believe Eulalio Tordil, 62, of Adelphi, had access to at least one additional gun and may have stashed others “in the community” despite having been ordered to turn in all of his guns as part of a protective order filed in March. Police were still actively searching for those weapons, said John McCarthy, state’s attorney for Montgomery County.
Tordil, who is on administrative leave from his job with the Federal Protective Service, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder plus gun charges in Montgomery County for shootings at Westfield Montgomery Mall and a Giant in Aspen Hill Friday.
Also, he faces a charge of first-degree murder in the slaying of his estranged wife Gladys Tordil, who was shot and killed outside her daughters’ high school in Prince George’s County Thursday.
The handgun used in the deaths of Malcom Winffel and Claudina Molina, a .40 caliber Glock, was legally purchased in Las Vegas in 2014 and should have been surrendered after the protective order was issued in March, McCarthy said.
The order required Tordil to stay away from his estranged wife Gladys Tordil, plus her residence and the high school where she taught chemistry.
Police have not said what type of gun was used in the slaying of Gladys Tordil.
During an initial court hearing in Rockville, McCarthy said that Tordil posed a “substantial danger” to the community in part because of his access to other weapons and because he was a flight risk.
McCarthy called the Friday shootings random. He said Tordil was trying to steal a car so that he could ditch the rental car he had been seen driving and make his escape.
License plate readers used by police traced some of Tordil’s movements on Thursday and Friday. McCarthy said that Tordil drove all over Montgomery County and also entered Virginia.
“He was identified in multiples areas around the region,” McCarthy said.
Tordil was ordered held without bail and arraigned on the charges stemming from the shootings last Friday.
Tordil did not speak during his hearing and kept his head down.
A similar hearing has not yet been held in Prince George’s County.
He is next expected in Montgomery County District Court June 3. If convicted of the Montgomery County charges, Tordil faces a maximum penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
McCarthy said he would take the case to a grand jury and seek an indictment.
Court documents offer new details
Also Monday, court documents provided new details of the shooting spree including that one of the survivors of Friday’s mall shooting told police that she played dead after she was shot in the chest by the man who had parked his car next to hers.
Police say they believe Tordil was trying to steal a car when he shot the unnamed woman at the mall and again when he fatally shot Molina, 65, in the Giant parking lot in Aspen Hill. Both women drove Toyota Rav 4s, according to charging documents.
The woman who survived the shooting at the mall told investigators that she found Tordil parked next to her when she exited the Macy’s store. Tordil’s car was parked on an angle, preventing her from climbing into her car. She waited for him to close his door and leave. Instead he approached her and asked if the Rav 4 was hers. When she answered yes, he showed her a handgun and told her “I’m not kidding. I will shoot you.”
The woman backed away and yelled for help. As two other men in the parking lot approached, Tordil shot them and then shot the driver of the Rav 4. She told police that she fell to the ground and then “closed her eyes and chose not to move because she did not want to antagonize the shooter,” court records said.
One of the men who came to the woman’s aid, Winffel, 45, was killed. The second man, whose name has not been released, was shot multiple times including in the buttocks and in the foot.
McCarthy called the two men “good and wonderful people … who tried to do the right thing.”
The condition of the man who survived the mall shooting has improved. And McCarthy said he was in surgery Monday to remove one of the bullets that hit him.
Police recovered eight shell casings from the mall parking lot. Three more shell casings and a fully loaded magazine were collected from the Giant parking lot, where Molina was shot and killed less than an hour after the mall shooting.
Investigators believe that Tordil struggled with Molina and they found his eye glasses inside the Toyota Rav 4 she was driving, McCarthy said.
The loss of his eyeglasses may have been what kept Tordil from leaving Aspen Hill because he couldn’t see well enough to drive, McCarthy said.
Police found Tordil at a strip mall across the street from the Giant. Undercover detectives watched him as he bought coffee at a Dunkin’ Donuts and then stopped to eat at Boston Market. He was arrested after he left the Boston Market just a few hours after the shooting at the Giant, McCarthy said.
Charging documents filed in Prince George’s County said that Tordil physically wrestled with his wife as she sat inside a car outside High Point High School just before she was shot.
A man who saw the scuffle and tried to intervene asked them if everything was all right. Tordil responded, yes, and said “I’m her husband.” The unnamed man told investigators that he immediately heard gunshots. He was shot once in the upper body as he ran away.
Tordil has worked for the Federal Protective Service for 26 years. He had been placed on administrative duties and his service gun and badge taken after a Prince George’s County judge issued the protective order.
He previously worked for the National Institutes of Health as a security officer, McCarthy said.
