Police say the worker also was linked through ballistics to a separate shooting at a Maryland state trooper days later.

POTOMAC, Md. — A 22-year-old employee at a Potomac senior living facility is charged with killing 87-year-old resident Robert Fuller Jr., a retired lawyer and philanthropist, after police said he gave Fuller medication, entered through a tampered side door and shot him in his apartment.

What began as a reported medical emergency at Cogir Potomac Senior Living on Feb. 14 has become a homicide case with widening consequences. Montgomery County police say Maurquise Emillo James, a medication technician at the facility, was arrested Feb. 24 and charged with first-degree murder. Investigators later said ballistic evidence tied the same gun to a separate shooting during a Maryland state trooper traffic stop in Baltimore early that same day. The case now reaches beyond a single apartment, raising questions about security, staff oversight and what happened inside the facility in the days before and after Fuller’s death.

Police and fire personnel were called to the 10800 block of Potomac Tennis Lane at about 7:34 a.m. on Feb. 14 for what was first described as a medical emergency. When first responders entered Fuller’s apartment, they found him unresponsive and pronounced him dead at the scene. Detectives said they saw evidence of a contact gunshot wound to the head, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later ruled the death a homicide. No firearm was found in the apartment. Fuller had been living at the assisted living center, where James worked as a medicine technician responsible for giving medications to residents, according to police and court reporting. Fuller’s longtime partner, who shared the apartment with him, told investigators James had delivered Fuller’s medicine the night before and then returned later to ask whether it had “kicked in,” an unusual question that stood out after the killing.

As detectives pulled surveillance video from the building, they focused on a side door leading to a stairwell. Police said footage showed a masked person moving toward that door, entering the building and later leaving before running down the sidewalk. Capt. Sean Gagan of the Montgomery County Police Department said detectives found the exterior door had been propped open and the alarm had been deactivated. Investigators also reviewed January video that they said showed James in the same stairwell area on the day the alarm system was disabled. A public video release on Feb. 20, showing a person in a plaid jacket walking through the courtyard, led to tips that helped identify James, police said. By then, authorities said, James had continued working at the facility for several days after Fuller died. Police have not publicly described a motive, and charging records cited in local coverage do not explain why Fuller was targeted.

Police say the case changed quickly in the early hours of Feb. 24. A Maryland state trooper stopped a silver Infiniti sedan without tags in West Baltimore at about 3:30 a.m. Authorities said the driver fired at the trooper, who was hurt but not seriously injured. At least one 9mm shell casing recovered at that scene was entered into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, and detectives later got a lead that the same gun had been used in Fuller’s killing. James was arrested later that day in Rockville after trying to run, police said. Maryland State Police said he was charged in the trooper shooting with attempted first-degree murder, felony assault, using a firearm during a crime of violence and related offenses. He was already being held without bond in Montgomery County on the homicide case, according to state police.

For people in Maine, where Fuller spent much of his life, the killing landed far beyond the walls of the Potomac facility. Fuller’s obituary described him as Robert Gorham Fuller Jr., born in Boston on Dec. 28, 1938, educated at Milton Academy, Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He practiced law for decades in Maine and was known for major gifts to civic causes. In 2021, the City of Augusta announced that Fuller had committed $1.64 million to finish improvements at Cony High School’s athletic field complex, a project that later carried his name. Fuller also was remembered in local reporting as a retired Navy Reserve officer, author and longtime donor. Those details added to the shock around his death, which police said happened not in public but inside a place meant for care and safety.

The aftermath has expanded into civil court as well. In a lawsuit filed in March, Fuller’s partner alleged the facility ignored prior concerns about James and allowed him to remain on duty despite troubling behavior. The lawsuit says a nurse raised written concerns 11 days before the killing and was later fired, and it alleges James was protected because his mother held a senior role at the facility. Those allegations have not been tested in court, and they stand apart from the criminal charges police filed. Still, they point to the next stage of the story: prosecutors moving the murder and trooper-shooting cases forward, while the civil case seeks records and sworn testimony about hiring, supervision, medication handling and security procedures. As of March 24, no public trial date had been announced in the criminal case.

Outside the court filings and police statements, the details of the scene remain stark. A resident’s partner was in the apartment but told investigators she did not see the shooting. An employee later noticed James inside the facility after his shift had ended and challenged him about a door sensor, according to police accounts in local reporting. He then fled, investigators said. Staff members and police later found items near the doorway, including a paper towel and a dark napkin, that fit the broader picture of a door being held open and the alarm system being bypassed. “I give the employee a lot of credit,” Gagan said after describing how the staff member reported the suspicious activity. That reaction captured the unsettled tone around the case: a resident dead, a caregiver charged and major questions still hanging over how the building’s safeguards failed.

James remains charged in Fuller’s death and in the trooper shooting, while Fuller’s family and partner press for answers through the courts. The next milestones are expected to come in pretrial proceedings and in the civil case’s early fight over records, witness statements and facility policies.

Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.