Couple Fatally Shot In Front Of Their Children By A Man They Didn’t Know, Police Say
A 24-year-old man fatally shot a couple he didn’t know in front of their children before being tackled by bystanders and taken into custody, Maine State Police said.
Marcel Lagrange Jr., 24, was arraigned on Wednesday on two counts of intentional or knowing murder, according to court records. He is accused of fatally shooting Brittney Cockrell, 37, in a parking lot in Westbrook, a suburb of Portland. Michael Hayter, 41, was found fatally shot inside their car, and the couple’s children, an 11-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter, were in the back seat and witnessed the shooting, police said.
The children were uninjured, police added, but one of the bystanders, a 75-year-old man, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
No information about a potential motive has been released, and police said there is no known connection between the victims and Lagrange.
The scene of a shooting in Westbrook, Maine.
Asad Khlaif was working in a nearby Arabic market when the shooting began, WGME reported. He told the local station that he saw a gunman open fire on Hayter, then at Cockrell as she tried to run from the vehicle.
As bystanders and responding police officers chased Lagrange, Khlaif said he realized children were in the car, and he and another man tried to shield them from their parents’ bodies, WGME reported.
According to the Portland Press Herald, Lagrange’s attorney is seeking a mental health evaluation, citing previous court records that detail his diagnosis with bipolar disorder and a pattern of criminal behavior since 2018. His attorney did not immediately respond to HuffPost on Thursday.
In 2020, Lagrange was charged with domestic violence assault, which was later dropped, the Press Herald reported, after he grabbed his grandmother’s arm and the steering wheel of the car she was driving before pulling the key out. She told officers she feared her grandson and did not want him living with her anymore.
Police noted in their report at the time that Lagrange was pacing inside the home holding a black handgun.
Lagrange opened up about his difficulties with the law and how it impacted him in a 2021 livestream with the nonprofit group Maine Inside Out, whose mission is to support incarcerated juveniles through performing arts.
“A lot of people in the past didn’t want to be around me cause of the way I was acting, cause I would act on a lot of stuff, and I’m just trying to better myself. I’m trying to be more humble. I’ve always been humble,” Lagrange said at the time.
Marcel Lagrange Jr., speaking at a Maine Inside Out livestream.
Lagrange went on to say he was in the process of trying to get an arson charge dropped because it was complicating his ability to find housing.
Almost a week before the shooting, Lagrange released music for the nonprofit.
According to the Press Herald, Hayter and Cockrell had moved with their children from Texas to Maine about six months ago. Hayter’s former boss told WGME that his coworkers were stunned and saddened over the couple’s death, adding that Hayter had loved his family.
In a statement to HuffPost, Westbrook Mayor Michael Foley said the children will be reunited with other family members, and there will be an opportunity for bystanders and first responders to be recognized.
“It is my understanding the children have been well cared for and being reunited with family soon,” Foley said. “It’s also been shared with me that one of the victim’s employers is working with the family on establishing a GoFundMe page to support the children, which will be shared soon and posted at the temporary memorial established downtown.”
Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the U.S. So far this year, 20,303 people have died because of gun violence; 11,418 of those died by suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
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