Police on Thursday were still searching for 34-year-old Daron Dylon Wint, a manhunt that extended northward into New York City, where authorities said he has acquaintances and some relatives in Brooklyn. Wint is charged in a warrant with first-degree murder while armed in the deaths of Savvas Savopoulos, 46, his wife Amy, 47, their 10-year-old son Philip and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57. .
Police said they believe the victims were held captive overnight and had been bound. Mayor Muriel Bowser described the slayings at a Thursday afternoon news conference as "an act of evil."
Hours later, Wint's father, Dennis, reached by phone, declined to comment. "I really am not in the mood to talk to any reporters," he said before hanging up.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier for the first time told residents that the suspect in the homicides that have riveted the Northwest neighborhood had targeted his victims. Wint had worked for American Iron Works, a large distributor of iron and steel based in Hyattsville, Maryland, run by Savvas Savopoulos, who along with his family was active in Washington's society, business and fund raising circles. The chief would not say when Wint worked there and one court record describes him as a certified welder.
"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," Lanier said at the Thursday news conference. "What we can tell you right now is that we do believe there is a connection between the suspect in this case through the business. So right now it does not appear that this was a random crime."
Records filed in Prince George's County District Court illustrate some of Wint's long-standing brushes with the law. In the mid-2000s, four people including his father and a housemate petitioned for restraining orders, the records show. Not all requests were granted, but a judge did order Wint to stay away from his father for a year.
In November 2005, Dennis Wint wrote in a sworn statement that his son had threatened violence. Police ordered the younger Wint to leave, but he stayed nearby, his father said, and "stood in the street in front of the house and continued to threaten me and my wife. I also have an 8-year-old child who is terrified."
A year later, a housemate accused Wint of punching him during a dispute over loud music. Another time, during an argument with a person over a car with no tags parked on private property, a man said in court documents that "Mr. Wint became very violent and said he will drop us one by one." He was ordered to stay away for six months.
Maryland defense attorney Robin Ficker, who represented Wint in about six minor criminal and traffic cases, all about 10 years ago, said he does not believe his former client is capable of the crimes with which he is accused. "He's not a match for this type of activity at all," said Ficker, who hasn't seen Wint in more than 10 years. "He's the last one I would suspect with anything like this."
Devera Zianal, who lives on the same street as the suspect's parents on Westview Lane in Lanham, Maryland, said she would occasionally see Wint sitting on the porch steps, but it didn't appear that he lived there full time. She said Wint's father, Dennis and his wife Pamela moved in about a decade ago. Police searched the split-level house with maroon shutters Wednesday night.
Social media and other listings show Dennis Wint works as an engineer or plumber and his wife is a nurse at a senior home. "These parents did everything right," said Zianal who added she saw Wint in the area as recently as last week. "They're hardworking people, and this is a good neighborhood."
Officials at American Iron Works declined to comment about Daron Wint's employment there. A housekeeper who had been with the family 20 years said she had never heard of Wint. During her afternoon press conference, Lanier would not rule out other suspects, but she declined to elaborate.
Police said they are still unsure of a motive behind last week's killings. Authorities believe the victims were taken captive May 13 and killed the next day before their multi-million dollar home was set ablaze. Savvas Savopoulos' assistant dropped a package off at the house on the morning of May 14 containing $40,000.
Police records also show a series of phone calls involving Savopoulos, his assistant, a bank and an accountant in the hours before the fire. A longtime house keeper has said she got texts and voice mails from both Savopolous' telling her not to come to the house on Thursday.
Police have not described the scene inside the large brick house on Woodland Drive Northwest, near the vice president's mansion, but have said that three of the victims suffered trauma and stab wounds. Police believe they were bound at some point. After the bodies were discovered about 1:15 p.m. on May 14, police found the family's blue Porsche torched on a church parking lot in Prince George's County two miles from the suspect's parent's home. Police had earlier released a video showing a blurred image of a man running away; police now say they believe that person is Wint.
Authorities said they linked Wint to the house through DNA recovered from a discarded crust from a Dominos pizza that was delivered to the house the night of May 13, while the family was being held. It came from an outlet in Tenleytown on Wisconsin Avenue, where regional director Nico Casillas said his driver noticed nothing unusual during the transaction.
The couple were active in the Washington area's society and business circles; Savvas Savopoulos ran American Iron Works, a large distributor of metals for construction contractors.
Records filed in Prince George's County Circuit Court show Wint grew up in Guyana, where he attended high school. He moved to the U.S. in 2000 and in July 2001 he began basic training with the U.S. Marines at Parris Island, South Carolina. A spokeswoman for the Marines said he separated in September of that year and did not complete his training.
The court records also show that in 2010, Wint bragged that he was "good with a knife" and not afraid of police while threatening a woman he had been out at a night club with earlier that morning. Another acquaintance, Jacinta Council recalled Wint as a "drinking buddy" and said she accused him in 2009 of assault and a sex offense, saying he punched and groped her in a Greenbelt, Maryland, bar where she worked as a server. The charges were dropped when Council did not pursue the case.
She said that apart from the one incident with Wint, "I had not seen a side like that to him. I don't try to put myself with people who are crazy and except for that night, he never seemed crazy."
Court records show that in 2010 Wint was charged after police found him sitting behind the dumpster of a gas station near American Iron Works with a two-foot long machete in his backpack and a pellet gun. He pleaded guilty only to holding an open container of beer and he spent one day in jail.
Wint also was arrested in 2006 in Oswego, New York, near Syracuse, and charged with stabbing a man, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard. David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the New York State court system, said Wint had been arrested at least three times in the late 2000s on assault charges, and has been convicted in some cases.
Oswego Police Capt. David Lizotte confirmed his officers had several past contacts with Wint but he declined to elaborate. He said police in the upstate New York city "have been made aware of what is going on" with Wint's charges in the District of Columbia.
Said Lanier: "You have about every law enforcement officer across the country that is aware of his open warrant and are looking for him." Even Wint's family, she said, has made pleas for him to turn himself in.
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Keith L. Alexander, Moriah Balingit, Paul Duggan, Mary Pat Flaherty, Dana Hedgpeth, Arelis Hernandez, Jennifer Jenkins, Justin Jouvenal, Antonio Olivo and Donna St. George contributed to this report.
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