Friday, May 22, 2015
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. marshals and police arrested a dangerous ex-convict and took his five companions into custody, safely ending a multistate manhunt in the slayings of a wealthy Washington family and their housekeeper.
The fugitive task force tracked Daron Dylon Wint to New York and back before they caught up with him late Thursday night in the parking lot of a Howard Johnson Express Inn in College Park, Maryland, authorities said. Dozens of officers quietly tailed a car and truck into the nation’s capital and then swarmed in so quickly that the group surrendered without a fight.
“We had overwhelming numbers and force,” Robert Fernandez, commander of the U.S. Marshal Service’s Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, told The Associated Press on Friday. “They completely submitted immediately.”
Police have not detailed why Wint — a welder who once worked for Savvas Savopoulos’ American Iron Works company — would want to kill the executive, his wife Amy, their 10-year-old son Philip, and their housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa. Three of the four had been stabbed or bludgeoned before their mansion was set on fire on May 14.
Wint, 34, was arrested about 11 p.m. Thursday on charges of first-degree murder while armed, D.C. police and the Marshals Service said. He was expected to appear in D.C. Superior Court on Friday afternoon. Wint is the only person currently charged and the only one of the group expected to make a court appearance Friday.
Investigators narrowly missed Wint in New York’s Brooklyn borough Wednesday night.
“We believe he saw himself on the news and just took off,” Fernandez said.
Investigators tracked Wint to the motel in Maryland, where they quickly realized he was probably in one of two vehicles in the parking lot. The car and truck left together, and the team followed as they took a U-turn and a strange route, either getting lost or trying to shake them, Fernandez said.
A police helicopter joined the pursuit from above, and officers eventually got between the two vehicles in northeast Washington. Wint surrendered without a fight and seemed “stoic” as he, two other men and three women were taken into custody, Fernandez said.
“I don’t think they knew we were tailing them until the moment we swarmed in on them,” said Fernandez.
The truck belongs to Amerit Fleet Solutions, and is basically a rolling garage, equipped to service and repair vehicles away from any fixed location. Spokeswoman Karen Vinton said the California-based company is aware that the truck was involved, and is cooperating with authorities.