Dad in "custody battle" murders 3-year-old daughter; grandparents in critical condition (Landover, Maryland)

Horrible coverage, with the usual "nice guy" clueless neighbors and family members in denial. Why do you quote these idiots?

The facts speak from themselves. There is not much that's nice about Daddy. In fact, he fits the portrait of the abusive/controlling father who uses a custody battle as a way to punish Mom and destroy the child TO AN ABSOLUTE T.

Check out the tell-tale signs.

1) Custody battle beginning literally after the birth of the child, subjecting this new mother to horrific stress and financial strain.

2) The guy OBVIOUSLY HAS A HISTORY OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, hence the mother's efforts to obtain an order of protection, and the destruction of the grandmother's property.

3) Despite all this, Daddy is granted weekend visitation with an infant. Mom still has primary custody, but that's not enough control for Daddy, see. Obviously, he continued to be an @$$, as he was switched to supervised visitation. Nice of the courts, but they were still putting this mother and child in danger and traumatizing them by binding them to this dangerous criminal.

4) Daddy is further emboldened when the mother is ORDERED TO PAY HIM $11,000 for what appears to be a mistake of the courts. Why is she being punished?

4) And in reality, the protective mother's custody concerns are DOCUMENTED IN REALITY now. Daddy "allegedly" shot the two grandparents (now in critical condition) and stabbed and shot the 3-year-old daughter to death in a police shoot out.

Despite the BS from the relatives, Daddy didn't "snap" or anything else. This is exactly how controlling abusers behave. Once again, the authorities failed to save a mother and child from a violent killer.

Dad is identified as FREDERICK ROY MILLER.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/answers-may-be-slow-in-3-year-olds-fatal-shooting-during-dads-gun-battle-with-police/2014/08/17/dcffef2c-262d-11e4-86ca-6f03cbd15c1a_story.html

Prince George’s police say man shot and stabbed daughter, 3, before he was killed

By Mike DeBonis and Julie Zauzmer
August 17 

A Landover, Md., man who engaged in a Saturday afternoon shootout with police on Branch Avenue, with his 3-year-old daughter beside him, appears to have stabbed and shot the girl before he was killed by officers, Prince George’s County officials said Sunday.

Police identified the man as Frederick Roy Miller, 38. Court records identify his daughter, who was a passenger in the car her father drove while firing at police, as Laila Miller.

The chase began Saturday afternoon after Miller allegedly shot Laila’s maternal grandfather and great-grandmother at a home in Camp Springs. Both were hospitalized in critical condition Sunday.

Police initially said they were not sure whether officers knew the girl was in the car when they fired at it, nor whether she was killed by a bullet fired by her father or by one of the six officers who returned fire during the chase.

Dean Jones, president of the Fraternal Order of Prince George’s County Police, said Sunday morning that the officers involved in the shooting were “all hurting right now.”

“They’re wondering if they’re the one that hurt the child,” Jones said. “They were trying to do the right thing, and it didn’t go well at all.”

But late Sunday afternoon, police said initial findings from the Maryland state medical examiner indicated that it was Miller who had harmed the toddler.

Jones said the initial shooting involving the girl’s grandfather and great-grandmother may have stemmed from a custody battle between the child’s parents. The child’s mother was not at either scene and was found unharmed afterward, police said.

No one answered the door Sunday at the mother’s home in the 4200 block of Farmer Place in Camp Springs, where the two relatives were shot. The home is a tidy split-level in a quiet subdivision near Crossland High School.

Court records indicate a long-running dispute between Miller and Laila’s mother, one that included requests from the mother for protective orders against Miller and a December 2012 destruction-of-property complaint filed by the great-grandmother against Miller.

Litigation over custody of Laila began six months after her birth in January 2011, court records show. Judges over the years consistently ruled that the girl’s mother should have custody; Miller initially had weekend visitation rights, then was restricted to supervised visits.

A woman who answered the door at Miller’s address Sunday said the long battle over Laila’s custody and child support had taken a heavy toll on Miller, who had gone to members of Congress, the Department of Veterans Affairs and others for assistance in getting custody of the child.

“He contacted anybody and everybody to ask for help. . . . All he wanted was to see his daughter,” said the woman, who identified herself only as a “close family relative.”

Miller’s relative did not know why he went to the house in Camp Springs on Saturday where Laila and her mother lived. She said Miller had family members in the area and he might have driven past the house and seen his daughter there.

The relative pointed to a monetary dispute that may have aggravated relations between Miller and Laila’s mother. Court records show a Maryland Circuit Court judge ordered the mother to pay Miller more than $11,000 in November after finding that the child received Social Security disability payments owed to Miller that exceeded the amount of child support he would otherwise be obligated to pay.

“They didn’t want to pay the money the court ordered [the mother] to pay him back,” the relative said.

Miller, the relative said, was a disabled Marine veteran and had worked as a technician for Verizon but was recently unemployed. His daughter was his only child, she said, but Miller had helped raise many of his 23 nieces and nephews.

A man leaving the Miller residence Sunday afternoon declined to comment, only shaking his head when told police suspected Miller of harming his daughter.

A next-door neighbor, Stephanie Bailey, said she never knew Miller to be violent, saying he regularly helped out with yardwork and “always had a smile on his face.”

“I know that he was struggling through the court system to get access to his daughter for a very long time,” she said.

Bailey said she was skeptical of reports the Miller might have harmed Laila. “I wouldn’t believe that,” she said. “I really wouldn’t.”

A statement from police named the officers involved in the shooting. They included five members of the Prince George’s police force — Cpls. Clarence Black and Paul Schweinsburg; patrol officers Alba De Jesus, Brett Fairbrother and Christopher Gehlhausen — and Master Trooper Williard Shelton of the Maryland State Police.

All six are on routine administrative leave until the investigation is completed, police said. None were injured during the chase or shootout.

Lynh Bui contributed to this report.