Pregnant woman found dead in suspect’s home after gas station shooting, MD cops say
A fatal gas station shooting led police to discover the decomposing body of a pregnant woman in the suspect’s home, Maryland police said.
On Dec. 8, Torrey Moore, 31, entered a gas station convenience store in Silver Spring, picked up a bottle of iced tea and went to the check-out counter, according to a Dec. 9 Montgomery County Police Department news conference and news release.
Moore then got into an argument with the clerk, 61-year-old Ayalew Wondimu, which escalated into a physical fight, according to police. He grabbed items from in front of the counter and threw them at Wondimu, officers said.
In response, Wondimu picked up a metal pole to defend himself. Moore then pulled out a handgun from his vest pocket and shot Wondimu in the chest, killing him, police said.
After firing several more shots at Wondimu, who had collapsed behind the counter, Moore picked up the bottle of iced tea and left the store, police said.
A man who said he knew Wondimu said he was planning to quit only several days after the shooting, according to ABC 7. He added that Wondimu was “a gentle soul.”
An attorney for Moore could not immediately be reached for comment by McClatchy News. A spokesperson for the Montgomery County Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Dec. 12.
“To literally have a dispute over a container of iced tea at a convenience store, and to have it rise to the level of a dispute that an individual would then pull out a handgun and brutally murder someone in broad daylight, is very troubling to me,” Chief Marcus Jones said at the news conference.
Following the shooting, police detectives tracked Moore to his apartment across the street from the gas station, officers said. After obtaining a search warrant, police entered the apartment and found Moore inside along with an unidentified body on the floor in “an advanced stage of decomposition.”
“It is very difficult for us to give an explanation or to know exactly what are the injuries from which she died from,” Jones said.
The victim had been in a relationship with Moore, according to a statement he gave detectives, police said. He also said she was eight months pregnant at the time she died.
Moore, who had a criminal record, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm while committing a felony, police said.
An autopsy was ordered for the female victim to determine the cause and manner of her death, police said.
The investigation remains ongoing.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Jones said.
This story was originally published December 12, 2022 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Pregnant woman found dead in suspect’s home after gas station shooting, MD cops say."