The young couple gunned down Monday night in Westbrook had recently relocated to Maine from Texas with their two young children.
Michael Hayter, 41, and Brittney (McKinney) Cockrell, 37, were shot to death in front of their 7- and 11-year-old children by Marcel LaGrange, Jr., according to the Maine State Police (MSP), in what appears to be a random act of violence.
Law enforcement has not said whether the case is being investigated as a hate crime.
LaGrange, 24, had previously told corrections officers at the Long Creek Youth Correctional Center in 2018 that he wanted wanted to go on a shooting spree and kill innocent people, according to a report from the Portland newspaper.
The Maine Wire reported Tuesday that LaGrange had a lengthy criminal record that includes assault, terrorizing, assaulting police officers, and arson — crimes which earned him brief stints in correctional facilities over the past four years. LaGrange had also previously been involved with a non-profit that helps incarcerated youth rehabilitate through the arts.
Fox23 WGME has reported based on police sources that the entire shooting was caught by surveillance camera. The outlet has also reported that an anonymous woman, shortly before the shooting, had alerted the Portland Police Department to threats LaGrange had made against her.
“In those four days, I quickly realized that he was a very dangerous person,” the woman said, according to WGME. “So I asked to not have contact with him, which is what made him just, he went insane.”
In text messages to the woman, LaGrange reportedly threatened to make other people “pay” for her rebuffed advances.
Social media accounts that appear to belong to LaGrange are covered with images of LaGrange smoking what appears to be marijuana and brandishing firearms.
Depending on when that firearm was acquired, LaGrange would have been prohibited under Maine law from legally purchasing a firearm.
State police investigators have yet to say how LaGrange obtained the firearm.
6 Comments
“police investigators have yet to say how LaGrange obtained the firearm.”
Hmmm, it’s almost as if this dusky criminal WENT AROUND THE LAW to obtain his firearm….
“Gee, I best stop smoking marijuana, or I’ll go shoot random people in Westbrook.”
Said no one ever.
Get Soros DA’s, get Soros DA results: Complete zeros waking amongst us.
My husband was murdered in 2013 by Mohamud Mohamed from Somalia ; Joseph Bub Peters Nguany of Sudan and John Lopez JR from Old Orchard Beach Me- Mohamed got 3 yrs did 18 months : Lopez is out and has a free college degree, Joseph Ngyany is in Maine State Prison for now: my husband was shot unarmed as he sat in a car: the gun was obtained by Going to the housing projects in South Portland and being dug up from the yards, how is gun control going to stop these types from getting guns? It will not stop them it will unarm us and leave us as sitting ducks. Clearly the mental health system failed here and will continue to fail because no one cares enough to fix it, if anyone thinks they are safe and this is not going to keep happening you are wrong. When Mohamed was released from Maine Jail I called ICE it was not done automatically nor was it communicated to me: I did speak to a man from ICE about 6 yrs ago and was told he was deported: but borders have been wide open for years now: so he’s probably back on U S soil . This is a tragedy that really was not preventable , the system is not at all equipped to stop these people, the guns are buried for them to access and there’s not enough law enforcement now nor will there be in the future. My sincerest condolences to the kids and their families , I know a bit about what you are in now and it’s not pretty not fair and this devil will have more rights and more protection than you will , god help us all,
Lori it rips at my HEART to hear your story. I pray the LORD watches over you and your family. This story is happening so much now it sounds normal, Every capable Citizen should be armed and well train in how to use weapons. You are right that this will not stop UNTIL WE MAKE IT STOP.
Nice shiner this half-breed nizzle received. Hope it gets infecteed and he loses his eye.
Why are these nizzlers in our country?!