In the early hours of Sunday, May 7, 2023, a party at an off-campus student rental on East College Avenue in Frostburg, Maryland, turned into a scene of violence. Amid the gathering near Frostburg State University, gunfire erupted, striking multiple people. When Frostburg Police and Frostburg State University Police arrived at the residence around 12:10 AM, they discovered a chaotic situation with several victims.
Among them was 20-year-old Alexander Ramon Redondo of Westernport, a male who was not a student at the university. He was found with a gunshot wound to the chest and was unresponsive. First responders performed CPR before he was rushed to UPMC Western Maryland for emergency treatment, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
The shooting left four other people wounded. Two female students from the university were hospitalized and listed in stable condition. A third victim, a male student at Frostburg State, transported himself to the hospital later that Sunday afternoon with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. The investigation, led by the Allegany County Combined Criminal Investigation Unit quickly became a homicide case. Investigators learned that the group of suspects had allegedly been involved in a disturbance at a university housing complex the night before the shooting, where several of them were seen wearing ski masks. Witnesses later identified the individuals from the prior incident as the same group present at the party when the fatal shots were fired. It is believed there was an ongoing feud between the suspects and Redondo.
In the weeks that followed, a series of arrests were made. The investigation led to the identification of five suspects. On May 16, Benjamin Laurent Atyam, a 21-year-old Frostburg State University student, was taken into custody on campus. Two days later, on May 18, the Maryland State Police Apprehension Team arrested 22-year-old Javon Vinson Epifanio at a residence in Baltimore. On May 23, authorities arrested two more men in separate Baltimore residences: 19-year-old Malik Nigel Lewis and 21-year-old Daiquan Tyrone Raymond Guy, who was also a student at the university. The fifth suspect, 19-year-old Tanaz Antwon Taylor of Baltimore, was arrested by the same state police team on June 8.
All five men face charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and other related offenses. They were all held without bond at the Allegany County Detention Center. Prosecutors have stated their intention to seek sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the defendants upon conviction for first-degree murder. The investigation continued after the arrests, with authorities suggesting that additional arrests were possible.
