The police in Maryland were searching on Friday for a man they said was linked to the killing of a judge at his home on Thursday evening, officials said.
The judge, Andrew F. Wilkinson of the Washington County Circuit Court, was found around 8 p.m. in his driveway in Hagerstown suffering from what appeared to be gunshot wounds, officials from the county sheriff’s office said. His wife and son were home at the time, the authorities said.
Judge Wilkinson later died of his injuries at a hospital in Hagerstown, a city near the Pennsylvania border and about 75 miles by road west of Baltimore. The sheriff’s office later said in a statement that its officers were looking for Pedro Argote, 49, as part of a preliminary homicide investigation.
Judge Wilkinson, 52, had been presiding over a divorce case involving Mr. Argote that began last year and resulted in a partial judgment of divorce on Thursday, court records show.
Sheriff Brian K. Albert of Washington County said at a news conference on Friday that Judge Wilkinson awarded custody of children to Mr. Argote’s partner at the court hearing on Thursday. Mr. Argote did not attend the hearing, Sheriff Albert said.
The killing was a “targeted attack,” Sheriff Albert said, adding that Mr. Argote is known to drive a silver Mercedes S.U.V. with Maryland plates and should be considered “armed and dangerous.” He said other judges in the county had been placed under police protection overnight as a precaution.
“But we don’t feel that there’s any threat, currently, to the other judges in the county or the state,” he added.
A profile of Judge Wilkinson on the circuit court’s website said that he was born in Guam in 1971 and joined the court in January 2020.
“We are a courthouse of six judges,” said Administrative Judge Brett R. Wilson, a colleague of Judge Wilkinson’s. “We all know each other very well.”
Mike Ives contributed reporting.
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