HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Police are searching for a man suspected of fatally shooting a Maryland judge who had awarded custody of the suspect’s children to his wife on the day of the killing, authorities said Friday.
The judge was shot in his driveway Thursday evening while his wife and son were home and just hours after he ruled against the suspect in a divorce case, authorities said.
Washington County Sheriff Brian Albert said authorities are “actively working” to apprehend 49-year-old Pedro Argote for the “targeted attack” of Maryland Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson.
Wilkinson, 52, was found with gunshot wounds around 8 p.m. Thursday outside his home in Hagerstown, authorities said. Wilkinson was taken to Meritus Medical Center, where he died of his injuries.
Albert said at a news conference Friday that Argote is considered “armed and dangerous.” Albert declined to identify that type of weapon used in the slaying but said Argote legally owned a handgun.
Judges across the U.S. have been the target of threats and sometimes violence in recent years. President Joe Biden last year signed a bill to give around-the-clock security protection to the families of Supreme Court justices after the leak of a draft court opinion overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion-rights decision, which prompted protests outside of conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices’ homes.
Wilkinson had presided over a divorce proceeding involving Argote earlier Thursday, but Argote was not present for the hearing, Albert said. The judge gave custody of Argote’s children to his wife at the hearing.
, and that was the motive for the killing, the sheriff said.
Wilkinson issued a judgment Thursday, officially granting the divorce and awarding sole custody of the couple’s four children — ages 12, 11, 5 and 3 — to their mother, court records show. He ordered Argote to have no contact with the children and pay $1,120 a month in child support.
Court records show a messy legal battle that began when Argote filed for divorce last year.
In his initial court filing, Argote accused his wife of neglecting her homeschooling responsibilities and failing to properly supervise the children. But she filed a countercomplaint, accusing Argote of “cruel treatment” and saying she couldn’t support herself financially.
Days later, his wife requested a protective order, saying he was harassing her via text, controlling her every move, threatening to abuse their daughter and making false accusations against her.
“I don’t get out of the house without his knowledge,” she wrote in court documents. “I know he has his weapon on him at all times.”
A judge granted a temporary protective order — which included a directive for Argote to surrender his firearms — but it was dismissed weeks later at the wife’s request, court records show.
Argote repeatedly proposed that they continue living in the same house while they sorted out their digital advertising business and became more financially stable.
