GLEN BURNIE, Md. — We have seen the video of 22-year-old Joseph Willis' capture after a 16-hour manhunt following a murder and a pair of shootings as police tried to track him down.
"Mr. Willis was just like a loose cannon. We were just praying that he didn't hurt anybody else."
This from Patricia Bosse, whose son, Chris Jones, was Willis' first alleged victim---gunned down in his Glen Burnie home.
It was Jones' missing Toyota Camry that Willis was driving when police tried to stop him on two separate occasions Wednesday night and drew gunfire.
"My understanding is he just met him a couple of days ago. It wasn't a friend of his,” said Bosse.
"But he allowed him into his home?"
"He allowed him in that home. Yes," she replied.
But it was a very different looking Joseph Willis who entered John's Liquor and General Store on Duvall Highway in Pasadena in August of 2017 and robbed a cashier and a customer at gunpoint.
Just 19-years-old at the time, Willis received a five-year prison sentence with all, but 18 months suspended, but in November of last year, a judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest after violating his probation.
A warrant, which wasn't served until he surrendered following the shootings on Thursday.
"I can't really speak about open warrants other than I know he was taken into custody on that last night and then this case was investigated and ultimately I understand there will be charges brought on that, but I don't have any comment on the appropriateness of the service of the warrant or not," said Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess.
It's a question patrons of a liquor store he knocked off more than two years ago are asking.
"When you get a warrant or you've got something and people are out there running around, and you don't know the next place they're going to go," said Danny Pitts of Pasadena.
And one, which will haunt those who have paid a price for him remaining at large.
"It's almost unbearable to go through something like this, because Chris... I'd like people to know what a wonderful person he was,” said Bosse. “He was the kindest, most gentle spirit anyone would want to meet and to die so violently, it's heartbreaking."
