The man suspected of killing wealthy D.C. businessman Savvas Savopoulos, his wife, their young son and the family’s housekeeper previously worked for the man’s company and is thought to have fled to Brooklyn, police officials announced Thursday.
Daron Dylon Wint, 34, was named as the prime suspect in the May 14 quadruple homicide in an upscale neighborhood in Northwest Washington. Police have issued a warrant for his arrest on first-degree murder charges.
The details revealed at a Thursday press conference indicate the Savopouloses were targeted for the gruesome crime. Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said Mr. Wint once worked for American Iron Works, a construction materials company owned by Mr. Savopoulos.
“For residents of the District who are rightfully scared and want answers as to why and how this family may have been involved, we want to give you as many answers as we can,” Chief Lanier said. “What we can tell you right now is that we do believe there is a connection between this suspect in this case through the business. Right now it does not appear that this was just a random crime.”
First responders found the bodies of Mr. Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy, 47; their 10-year-old son Philip, and 57-year-old housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa inside the home on the afternoon of May 14 when firefighters responded to extinguish a blaze in the multimillion-dollar residence.
Chief Lanier said three of the victims had suffered either blunt force trauma or wounds from sharp objects and that the home was intentionally set on fire.
SEE ALSO: Daron Dylon Wint named suspect in quadruple D.C. homicide
Authorities searched several locations, including the home of Mr. Wint’s father in Lanham, Maryland, on Wednesday and Thursday. Chief Lanier said Thursday that officials believe Mr. Wint had traveled to Brooklyn, New York — possibly by bus — and authorities there were looking for him. She was unable to say definitively whether Mr. Wint had any accomplices.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged that investigators would find the person responsible for this “act of evil.”
News reports indicate the family was held captive in the home the night before the fire and that $40,000 in cash was delivered to the residence shortly before the fire was set.
The break in the case appeared to come from a pizza delivery made to the home while the family was being held. The Washington Post reported that police found Mr. Wint’s DNA on a piece of pizza crust at the Savopoulos home.
Maryland court records show that Mr. Wint had multiple run-ins with the law. He was convicted of second-degree assault in 2009 and sentenced to 30 days in jail. He was also the subject of multiple peace and protective orders, including one requested by his own father.
A protective order taken out by his father in 2005 describes how Mr. Wint stood outside of his father’s Lanham home and threatened to shoot his father and stepmother. Police were called to the scene, but Mr. Wint came back afterward.
“He stood in the street in front of the house and continued to threaten me and my wife,” wrote Mr. Wint’s father in a handwritten application for a protective order filed in Prince George’s County District Court. “Threats were to be on the lookout for him, I should have made the officer pat him and they would have found what he had under his clothing for me.”
The protective order sought by Mr. Wint’s father sought to ban him from the family’s Lanham home, which was one of several locations in Prince George’s County that police searched Wednesday night. The order also sought to keep Mr. Wint away from the elementary school and day care attended by his then-8-year-old sister.
A separate peace order sought in 2006 by another person indicates that Mr. Wint had threatened a man and his family after an argument over a car that was left in their driveway. The petition for the peace order states that Mr. Wint threatened the family and punched the man in the chest when he told Mr. Wint not to leave the car, which had broken windows and was missing a license plate, in the driveway.
Mr. Wint was born and raised in Guyana, according to Maryland court records. He moved to the United States in 2000, when he was about 20, and joined the Marine Corps that same year, The Associated Press reported. He received an honorable discharge for medical reasons, then worked as a certified welder, court records show.
Chief Lanier would not say Thursday whether authorities had been in touch with Mr. Wint since the homicides. But she added that even his family had made pleas for him to turn himself in.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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