Man accused of spree ordered held without bond

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- A federal security officer charged with killing three people, including his estranged wife, in a shooting rampage in a Maryland suburb of the nation's capital was ordered held without bond on Monday.

Eulalio Tordil of Adelphi, an employee of the Federal Protective Service, appeared in court by video Monday afternoon in Rockville, Maryland. He faces charges including first-degree murder.

A public defender representing him conceded it wasn't realistic to ask for Tordil to be released.

In court, Montgomery County State's attorney John McCarthy called Tordil "very tough to track" after the shooting of his wife. He was driving a rental car and had turned off his cell phone. McCarthy said the weapon Tordil used had been purchased before a protective order that required him to turn in any firearms and should have been turned over to law enforcement.

McCarthy said Tordil's glasses were knocked off him in a struggle with the victim at the grocery store and he may have stayed in that area because he couldn't see to drive.

Police said the shootings began Thursday when Tordil, 62, fatally shot his estranged wife, Gladys, a chemistry teacher, in a high-school parking lot. A bystander was wounded.

Authorities said the shootings continued Friday at two other parking lots, one outside Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, and the other at a shopping center about 5 miles away.