A Glen Burnie, Maryland, man was shot by his neighbor on April 15 and the fatal incident came almost exactly two months after the victim was denied a protective order.
Tyrique Hudson was a 22-year-old software engineer from North Carolina who had worked for the aerospace and defense technology company Northrup Gruman for eight months before his neighbor fatally shot him last week.
After responding to calls of a man firing a shotgun at an apartment complex in the Baltimore suburb, police arrived to discover Hudson dead with gunshot wounds, Capital Gazette reported. Then authorities engaged in a 10-hour standoff with suspected shooter 52-year-old James Verombeck.
Verombeck has been charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, using a firearm in a felony violent crime and reckless endangerment. A judge ordered him to be held without bond on April 16.
The incident comes after Hudson unsuccessfully tried to get a peace order following a Feb. 16 interaction with Verombeck. In his petition, reported by WBAL, Hudson wrote his neighbor said, “you knew this day was coming” and “you know what you did.” Hudson said he didn’t know what Verbombeck was talking about. He also said Verombeck “gave me a death gesture using his thumbs across his throat.”
A temporary court order was issued that day that prohibited Verombeck from abusing or contacting Hudson, Capital Gazette reported. However, that order was lifted three days later when District Court Judge Devy Patterson Russell denied the protective order. She said Hudson’s request “could not meet the burden of proof.”
Hudson’s petition stated his neighbor harassed, stalked and threatened him with violence.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the Commission on Judicial Disabilities had suggested a six-month suspension for Russell months ago, saying she violated state law and did not stay up on administrative work. Additionally, she shouted at fellow judges, pushed a courthouse staffer and overlooked more than 100 search warrants.
As a result, Russell had been on temporary assignment in Anne Arundel County — where she heard and denied Hudson’s petition for a protective order — as the Maryland Court of Appeals decided whether to accept a recommendation that she be suspended for her actions.
Hudson, who had moved to Maryland from N.C. in July 2018, told both of his parents, who are separated, about a scary interaction he had with Verombeck.
“He said ‘Listen, dad, you ever seen somebody you can’t describe, you can’t explain how he looks?’” his father, Tyrone Hudson recalled to the Capital Gazette.
His mother, Tonya Burch, said her son did not feel safe. She vowed they’d search for a new place for the North Carolina A&T State University graduate to live.
Hudson looked at an apartment on April 12, but he was locked into his apartment lease until May.
Still, he didn’t come into contact with Verombeck since the Feb. 16 court date, his parents said.
Almost two months later, Hudson, a driven student who completed a five-year early college program in four years and graduated from A&T with a computer science degree in 2 1/2 years, was dead.
On Tuesday, April 23, the community gathered in his apartment complex to honor his memory, according to WBAL.
“A young man, 22 years young life is now gone, and we could have possibly prevented that if he had an opportunity to be able to get some type of response to his request for protection,” said Apostle Larry Lee Thomas Sr, president of United Black Clergy, at the vigil.
