A Glen Burnie man whom police charged with 66 counts after a local shooting spree that injured two people on May 15 spent 36 years in prison for the 1983 killing of a Radio Shack employee in Beltsville.
Larry James Simpson, 68, faces charges on 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, 16 counts of attempted second-degree murder and a slew of other offenses related to the May shooting.
Simpson is being held without bond after waiving his right to a bond review hearing on May 18.
According to a news release from Prince George’s County Police (PGPD), detectives are seeking witnesses with information about the rampage, which apparently began in College Park, moved to Riverdale and ended in Greenbelt on Friday afternoon.
Police said officers received a call about a man “pointing a long gun” out a car window in the 5100 block of Pierce Avenue in College Park. Witnesses told police the gunman fired several shots but did not hit anyone.
From there, according to police, Simpson shot at a car on Riverdale Road near the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Riverdale. The bullet missed the 64-year-old driver but shattered a window, causing cuts to the victim’s head.
Minutes later, police said, Simpson’s car overturned after it collided with another vehicle at 67th Avenue at Patterson Street in Riverdale. There, Simpson carjacked a Nissan and fired at at least four people, striking one man, who was critically injured.
Police said the victim is expected to survive.
Next, Simpson carjacked a Toyota at Kenilworth Avenue and Good Luck Road in Riverdale and shot at the driver, who was not injured, according to the press release.
Police said they arrested Simpson in the 9000 block of Edmonston Road in Greenbelt after Simpson attempted to carjack a third car and shot toward an off-duty PGPD officer who had been tracking him, police said. The officer was not wounded.
Police said they recovered an AR-15-style rifle at that location.
The alleged shooter was treated at the hospital for injuries that police said he probably sustained when he wrecked his car in Riverdale.
Court records and media reports show that Simpson was found guilty nearly four decades ago of the lethal shooting of John Parker, a 21-year-old Virginia resident working at the electronics store in 1983. When detectives originally linked Simpson to the homicide, he was already jailed on separate charges for allegedly shooting at police officers in the District.
Although he had been sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years, he was released in 2023.
