COCKEYSVILLE, MD. – Four people were found dead Thursday inside a car that matched a description of a vehicle connected to a former Maryland police officer allegedly carrying his daughters in Pennsylvania, authorities said. blame said.
Elena Russo, a spokeswoman for the Maryland State Police, said at a news conference that the Pennsylvania State Police were trying to stop a vehicle that may have been involved in an incident in Baltimore County when they found four people.
After the vehicle passed from Pennsylvania into Maryland, Russo said, it veered off the highway and crashed into a fence. She said Maryland soldiers surrounded the vehicle and tried to contact those inside.
“Our crisis team has been trying to get in touch with the people in the car,” Russo said. “After receiving no response and low visibility inside the vehicle due to thick smoke inside the vehicle, police entered the passenger side.”
Soldiers found the driver and three people in the backseat, Russo said, adding that two of the three people in the backseat were minors. She said all four occupants appeared to have suffered gunshot wounds, and three of them died at the scene.
She said one of the minors is believed to have died at a hospital in Hagerstown, Maryland.
Russo declined to identify the four victims because the families were not notified and the investigation is still ongoing. But she said police believe they know who the victim is.
“Investigators believe this incident is likely related to two other incidents, one in Maryland and one in Pennsylvania,” she said.
Former Maryland County Sheriff Robert Vicosa broke into and kidnapped a driver Wednesday afternoon in Cockeysville, Baltimore County Sheriff Melissa Hyatt said at a news conference in York, Pennsylvania, on Thursday. The driver was later released unharmed, Hyatt said.
Vicosa had a shotgun and was accompanied by two young girls and Baltimore County Sheriff Sgt. Tia Bynum, police said.
Police in York County, Pennsylvania, say Vicosa assaulted his estranged wife for more than 24 hours at her home there starting Sunday, news agencies reported. Police said she escaped to contact authorities, but when they arrived at the home on Monday, Vicosa and the girls – aged 7 and 6 – were gone.
Police said investigators traced Vicosa’s phone to Bynum’s home, but she didn’t show up. They said that when they got back to her house, she was gone.
Vicosa was terminated in August and Bynum was suspended and disenfranchised in connection with the situation, Baltimore County Police spokesman Kevin Gay said. He didn’t elaborate on how Vicosa and Bynum were connected.
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