By andy Marso
COLLEGE PARK – Students at the University of Maryland received an e-mail alert Friday morning warning them that Deandre Kelly, a fugitive considered armed and extremely dangerous, was spotted near Seven Springs Village apartment complex in College Park this week.
But non-student residents of the complex were not notified and some of them were not happy about that.
“I don’t like that,” Kelvin Posey, 30, said. “I would have liked to know, I guess.”
Management at Seven Springs Village, which is on Cherry Hill Road, declined to comment. A phone call to the parent company, Realty Management Services, was not returned by deadline.
Kelly, 29, escaped from the Garrett County Detention Center Sunday after authorities said he assaulted two guards who said they thought he had a handgun. He was arrested Saturday after leading Maryland State Police on a high-speed chase following a routine traffic stop. A loaded handgun was reportedly found in the car.
Kelly has a history of drug-related arrests, including distribution of crack cocaine. Court documents related to his latest arrest in Garrett County list his address as 2840 Langston Place in Southeast Washington, D.C., but his prior addresses include 11438 Lockwood Drive in Silver Spring.
Capt. Marc Limansky of the University of Maryland’s Department of Public Safety said his department issued the alert because Seven Springs Village is close to campus.
“We just did it to be on the safe side,” Limansky said. “To alert the community that this guy might be in the area. He hasn’t been seen on campus, but Cherry Hill is close enough.”
Deputy U.S. Marshal Tony Campos said Kelly was last spotted Wednesday and there was a $6,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
But Johnny Williams, who said he has lived at Seven Springs for about three years, didn’t know he was supposed to be on the lookout for Kelly.
When shown a copy of Kelly’s mug shot Friday afternoon, Williams said he looked familiar.
“I think I’ve seen him somewhere before,” Williams said. “I don’t know where, but I’ve seen him somewhere before.”
Williams said that if the apartment’s managers knew Kelly had been spotted in the area, they should have posted notices in common areas.
Chris Ward, 67, said he wasn’t so sure. Ward, who has lived at Seven Springs since October, said the wording of the alert was too vague and that there was no need to start a panic if Kelly wasn’t spotted within the complex itself.
“It all hinges on what ‘in the vicinity’ actually means,” Ward said. “If he’s seen on the street walking by, why get everybody upset and on edge? … I feel safe and comfortable here. I think the place is very well run and the people in the management office are a good bunch, by and large.”
Campos said he couldn’t comment on precisely where Kelly was spotted.
Posey said he also felt relatively safe at Seven Springs, although he had a license plate stolen from the back of his car last year. He said he reported the theft to Prince George’s County Police, but hasn’t heard anything further.
