Glen Burnie man faces 60 charges after countywide shooting spree

A Glen Burnie man now faces 66 charges after Prince George’s County police say he turned a Friday afternoon drive into a fast-moving shooting spree that swept through College Park, Riverdale and Greenbelt before officers stopped him in a final confrontation on Edmonston Road.

Police identified the suspect as Larry James Simpson, 68, of Glen Burnie, Maryland. The case includes 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted second-degree murder, with additional charges reported and more potentially pending as investigators continue to piece together the sequence across five locations in northern Prince George’s County.

The violence began around 2:30 p.m. on May 15 in the 5100 block of Pierce Avenue in College Park, where police say Simpson pointed a long gun from a car window and fired several shots. No one was reported injured there, but the incident set off a countywide manhunt as the suspect moved south and east through densely traveled corridors.

Police say the next shots were fired on Riverdale Road near the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, where a 64-year-old driver was hit by shattered glass and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Minutes later, at about 2:58 p.m., Simpson’s vehicle overturned at 67th Avenue and Patterson Street. After climbing out, police say he carjacked a Nissan, fired at least four shots at people nearby and critically injured one man. That victim is expected to survive.

The spree continued to Kenilworth Avenue and Good Luck Road, where police say Simpson shot at a woman and stole her Toyota. She was not hurt. By then, schools in the area had been placed on lockdown, and witnesses were reporting an armed man moving through neighborhoods that sit close to homes, schools and commuter routes.

The final confrontation came in the 9000 block of Edmonston Road in Greenbelt, where police say Simpson tried to carjack a Honda and fired in the direction of an off-duty Prince George’s County police officer who had followed him in his personal car. The officer was unarmed, but his wife, also a county officer, relayed the suspect’s location in real time, helping guide the response. U.S. Park Police then moved in and took Simpson into custody. WBAL-TV reported that an AR-15-style rifle was recovered at the scene.

Police said two people were injured in all. The department, with more than 1,500 officers and 300 civilians serving nearly 900,000 residents and business owners, is now examining how quickly a single armed suspect pushed several communities into crisis before the arrest finally ended the threat.