Md. shooting suspect got handguns despite protective order

The suspect in a Maryland shooting spree somehow obtained two handguns used in the attacks, police said, even after a judge issued a protective order against him for alleged domestic abuse.

The two-day rampage left three people dead, including the suspect's estranged wife. Police charged Eulalio Tordil, 62, with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and four counts of use of a handgun in the commission of a felony in the shootings.

In court filings in a domestic violence case, Gladys Tordil, 44, said her husband once struck her so hard “my glasses broke on my face." The chemistry teacher at High Point High School in suburban Prince George's County, Md., also said her husband “threatened to harm me if I leave him."

Police said Tordil, a federal law enforcement officer, shot his estranged wife Thursday as she sat in her car in the school parking lot. On Friday, two people were killed at a shopping mall and grocery store located just miles apart. A tactical squad arrested Tordil without incident at a strip mall near the site of Friday's shootings.

Update: Eulalio Tordil has been charged for shootings at Montgomery County shopping centers: https://t.co/a9zGyDE4lj pic.twitter.com/gF4ps7OSSe

— Montgomery Co Police (@mcpnews) 7 мая 2016 г.

Authorities said Tordil began working for the Federal Protective Service in 1997, but was ordered to turn over his badge and gun after his wife filed a restraining order against him March 17.

Federal law prohibits someone with a domestic violence restraining or protective order from buying a gun. Law enforcement sources told WUSA9 that Tordil recently bought two .40 caliber handguns — ballistics tests matched the guns to the three crime scenes.

In court filings, Gladys Tordil alleged that for a decade beginning in 2006, her husband physically abused her and their two teenage children, slapping them, shoving them, and threatening them with violence, WUSA9 reported.

She claimed her husband, "subject(ed) the children to intense military like discipline, push ups, detention in dark closet(s)."

A judge ordered Tordil to have no contact with his family and to surrender his firearms to police. An official with the Federal Protective Service told WUSA9 that the agency placed Tordil on administrative duties and stripped him of his gun and badge.

Authorities said Tordil began working for the Federal Protective Service in 1997, but was ordered to turn over his badge and gun after his wife filed a restraining order against him March 17.

Federal law prohibits someone with a domestic violence restraining or protective order from buying a gun. Law enforcement sources told WUSA9 that Tordil recently bought two .40 caliber handguns — ballistics tests matched the guns to the three crime scenes.

In court filings, Gladys Tordil alleged that for a decade beginning in 2006, her husband physically abused her and their two teenage children, slapping them, shoving them, and threatening them with violence, WUSA9 reported.

She claimed her husband, "subject(ed) the children to intense military like discipline, push ups, detention in dark closet(s)."

A judge ordered Tordil to have no contact with his family and to surrender his firearms to police. An official with the Federal Protective Service told WUSA9 that the agency placed Tordil on administrative duties and stripped him of his gun and badge.

Authorities said they also confiscated a stockpile of personal weapons at the time. The Washington Post reported that his wife told police he owned .40-caliber and .45-caliber handguns, an M4 military carbine, a revolver and a “hunting gun.”