As loved ones remember 24-year-old Marie Shade Adebayo, prosecutors say the man charged with killing her in the parking lot of a Target store used an antique gun he illegally ordered by mail.
Donald Wayne Bricker Jr., 27, admitted in court on Friday that he shot his ex-girlfriend Monday night outside a Target store in Germantown, Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office spokesman Ramon Korionoff said.
"He circumvented the way the system is set up for registered sex offenders," Korionoff said. "He ordered a replica antique firearm to use in the crime. And he received that firearm on Monday, and that night killed his estranged girlfriend."
Prosecutors say Bricker shot Adebayo about 7:30 p.m. Monday in the parking lot of the Target store at 20908 N. Frederick Road. The University of Maryland, College Park graduate dated Bricker for about six months, her family said. They broke up, and she agreed to meet her ex-boyfriend in the Target parking lot to talk.
Adebayo's mother never met Bricker and said her daughter didn't know he was convicted of rape in 2008 and was a registered sex offender.
"My daughter Shade was a very beautiful and very intelligent human being," Cassandra Atkens said.
Bricker appeared in court Friday on first-degree murder charges and was denied bond.
Court documents say Bricker shot Adebayo when she left his vehicle, and that he then stood over her and fired the handgun at her again at close range.
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"It was ... said in court that he has admitted to shooting that gun twice and shooting the victim in this matter," Korionoff said.
Witnesses outside the Target store heard the former couple arguing in a car, and then investigators say Bricker fired at Adebayo multiple times. He fled in a white Ford Ranger, with police in pursuit, officials said.
Nearly 10 miles from the Target store, Bricker crashed his truck in Darnestown, Maryland about 8:10 p.m., police said. He was arrested in the 15800 block of Darnestown Road/Route 28 and then hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
A gun was recovered at the scene of the crash, police said.
"In my opinion, they should put him away that he would never come out to hurt a soul," the mother of the victim said. "He just doesn't need to be in society anymore."
