The victim in Tuesday’s fatal shooting in Kensington was killed by her estranged husband just hours after her he was released from jail, where he was being held for violating a protective order, police said.
Philip Gilberti was released Monday. Tuesday morning, he shot his wife, 37-year-old Heather Lynn McGuire, inside her van and dumped her body on Connecticut Avenue. That night, with police closing in on him, Gilberti killed himself at a home in Rockville, police said.
Last year, McGuire got a stay away order on Gilberti, saying he threatened to kill her if he ever caught her with another man. Last week he threatened her at her home on Grandin Avenue and again at a friend’s house in Aspen Hill.
“My children believe he is going to kill me if I do anything to upset him,” she told police over the weekend.
Police arrested Gilberti, but Judge Barry Hamilton let him go.
“We must have stricter bond requirements where there’s a history of domestic violence and take the discretion away from the judges in terms of what they’re able to do in terms of an unsecured bond and putting someone back on the street,” prominent Montgomery County defense attorney Rene Sandler said Wednesday.
During Tuesday’s manhunt, most officers didn’t need a picture of Gilberti. He had a long history with police, Sheriff Darren Popkin said.
“He has had a very lengthy criminal history here in Montgomery County, and the sheriff’s office has been dealing with him in a number of criminal cases over the years,” Popkin said.
In the 1990s, Gilberti served time in Nevada for beating up a woman.
Montgomery County usually has about 1,500 active protective orders, and about 40 of those are violated every month.
Judge Hamilton did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
