Cogir Employee Arrested In Fatal Shooting At Senior Living Facility

Updated at 6:11 p.m.

BETHESDA-CHEVY CHASE, MD — Maurquise Emillo James, a 22-year-old man from Baltimore, was identified Wednesday as the man arrested in the fatal shooting of 87-year-old Robert Fuller Jr. at a Potomac senior living facility.

James is being charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond.

A bond review is set for Thursday at 1 p.m. No motive for the Feb. 14 shooting has been detailed by officials.

Fuller, who hails from Maine and moved to Maryland with his wife a few years back, died from a gunshot wound to the head. NBC4 reported that Fuller donated millions toward the construction of a new recreational center and a hospital in Maine, among other initiatives.

He also served as a senior officer in the Naval Reserve and was a descendant of Supreme Court Chief Justice Melville Fuller, a key figure in the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case, according to WGME.

Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada said James was taken into custody Tuesday after a brief foot chase in downtown Rockville. Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said that authorities arrested James "literally outside of the District Court building."

Sean Gagen, a captain with the department's Major Crimes Division, said James was flagged as a person of interest after a tipster identified the Baltimore man as the individual captured in previously released video surveillance footage.

That footage was taken from the Cogir Potomac Senior Living facility, where James served as a medicine technician. When James spoke with detectives about the Feb. 14 shooting, he'd informed detectives that he had seen Fuller when he last administered medication.

The same tipster, according to Gagen, also said that Cogir employees had recognized the clothing seen in the surveillance video, and that it matched items previously worn by James at the senior living facility on multiple occasions.

Additional investigation also revealed that a side door regularly used by James at the facility had its alarm sensor tampered with on Jan. 9, when James was the last person to have used the door before the sensor stopped working.

Related: Man Accused Of Shooting At MD State Trooper During Traffic Stop Arrested

Investigators were further able to connect James to the fatal shooting after bullet casings retrieved from the scene of a Baltimore shooting on Tuesday matched those found at the senior living facility.

James is facing first-degree attempted murder, felony assault, and using a firearm during a crime of violence, among other charges, in the Baltimore incident.

He came under the Maryland State Police's radar after a trooper with the Golden Ring Barrack tried to stop a 2009 Infiniti in Baltimore City that was being driven with no headlights or tags. Although James pulled over at a stop sign, he opened his door and fired two shots toward the trooper as the official approached the driver door.

The trooper has since been released from the hospital and is on administrative leave in line with the department's protocols.

The investigation into James, in regards to the Fuller shooting, remains ongoing.

McCarthy said that due to the severity of the Montgomery County case, James would first be tried for the Feb. 14 shooting before he is transferred to Baltimore.