Police arrested and charged a 17-year-old Howard High School student Tuesday with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Kendrick McLellan, 26, who was found dead inside a car in a Columbia office building parking lot Saturday morning, according to the Howard County Police Department.
The Ellicott City teen, who the police did not name, was arrested at the high school at 12:45 p.m., Tuesday, and charged as an adult. Police said he had a loaded gun in his backpack when he was arrested, and said that a second suspect “remains unidentified and outstanding.”
On Saturday at around 2:14 a.m., officers found McLellan dead in the driver’s seat of a car parked at an office building in the 8800 block of Centre Park Drive. McLellan, of Baltimore, had multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Police determined through the investigation that the shooting happened at about 5 p.m., Oct. 9, at the same location where McLellan was found. The suspect and McLellan are believed to have been acquaintances, police said, and the reason for the shooting remains under investigation. The police department had offered a reward of up to $5,000 for information related to the shooting.
The suspect had an ankle monitor for a previous incident in another jurisdiction and was under Maryland Department of Juvenile Services supervision, police said.
On Saturday night, police were called to the same area, the 8800 block of Centre Park Drive, for a nonfatal shooting of two teens believed to be unrelated to the shooting of McLellan.
Police responded to the area at about 9:10 p.m. and found a 16-year-old and 17-year-old suffering from gunshot wounds. Both victims, from Elkridge, were transported to Shock Trauma for treatment and have since been released. Police believe the shooting occurred in the parking lot of the shopping center, which is next to Howard High School.
The shootings left some in the area surprised and raising concerns about safety in the area.
“It’s getting too close,” said Peter Ariola, a resident of Columbia and frequent shopper at the Giant in the shopping center where the two teens were shot.
Four Howard County Police cars were parked in the shopping center’s lot as people wheeled their carts of groceries to cars through the wind Tuesday. Police are increasing their presence in the area and conducting more area checks, according to a department spokesperson.
“This is the first shooting here, and I’ve been here 47 years, the first time anything like this in this area that I know of,” Rick Frye said. “So, quite unusual.”
Frye lives less than a mile from the shopping center and said he shops there often. Through decades of living in the area, this was the first time he’d heard about incidents like these “so close to home.”
The shootings come less than three months after a 17-year-old allegedly targeted another 17-year-old, Angelo Little, shooting and killing him in the food court of The Mall in Columbia.
For Megan Obeid, who works in the area, the violence on Saturday was surprising.
“This doesn’t really seem like the type of area where something like this would happen,” Obeid said.
Columbia is a nice place, said Ariola, but there are concerns about safety, especially when Howard County is “supposed to be one of the safest.” He would like to see more police presence in the county with well-trained officers, noting the need to “keep the peace here.”
The department is offering a reward of up to $3,000 for information about the non-fatal shooting of the teens.
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