Cold case: Man indicted for 2003 slaying in Columbia
Suspect already serving time for armed robbery
By Mike Santa Rita
msantarita@patuxent.com
Posted 6/04/09
A four-month grand jury investigation ended with the indictment of a Columbia man for a previously unsolved 2003 murder.
Clarence Mitchell Banks, Jr., 26, formerly of Stevens Forest Road, has been indicted for first-degree murder in the shooting death of Terrence Armstead, 34, of Columbia, Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the Howard County state’s attorney said Thursday.
Armstead died after being shot several times in the Dorsey’s Forge Apartment complex, in Oakland Mills, in the early morning hours of July 26, 2003.
His killing was one of three homicides that occurred over a 10-month period in Oakland Mills in 2002 and 2003.
Banks is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for the Dec. 12, 2005 armed robbery of a Columbia gas station and is in the custody of the Maryland Division of Corrections, according to Kirwan.
No court date has been set for his arraignment. Police investigators were not immediately available for comment on the investigation or the indictment.
The night before the shooting, Armstead and his wife, Salima, went to the movies and came home at about 11 p.m. Armstead told his wife that he was going to visit a friend and would be back in an hour, Salima said in a 2006 interview. But Armstead never saw the friend, she said, and never came home.
Shortly before he was killed, Armstead was involved in an argument with several people who were partying in a common area behind the Dorsey’s Forge Apartments, police said at the time.
His body was found on a sidewalk adjacent to the common area, police said.
At the time of his killing, Armstead was working at an auto service center in Columbia and was uninsured, and his wife was unemployed, Salima said in 2006.
Howard County police paid for his burial in New York, where the couple was from.
After her husband’s shooting, Salima Armstead lost her federal housing assistance and was temporarily homeless. She eventually found shelter at the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center, in Columbia, she said in the interview three years ago, and later landed a job at a local Wal-Mart and moved to Baltimore County with her three children.
Clarence Mitchell Banks, Jr., 26, formerly of Stevens Forest Road, has been indicted for first-degree murder in the shooting death of Terrence Armstead, 34, of Columbia, Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the Howard County state’s attorney said Thursday.
Armstead died after being shot several times in the Dorsey’s Forge Apartment complex, in Oakland Mills, in the early morning hours of July 26, 2003.
His killing was one of three homicides that occurred over a 10-month period in Oakland Mills in 2002 and 2003.
Banks is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for the Dec. 12, 2005 armed robbery of a Columbia gas station and is in the custody of the Maryland Division of Corrections, according to Kirwan.
No court date has been set for his arraignment. Police investigators were not immediately available for comment on the investigation or the indictment.
The night before the shooting, Armstead and his wife, Salima, went to the movies and came home at about 11 p.m. Armstead told his wife that he was going to visit a friend and would be back in an hour, Salima said in a 2006 interview. But Armstead never saw the friend, she said, and never came home.
Shortly before he was killed, Armstead was involved in an argument with several people who were partying in a common area behind the Dorsey’s Forge Apartments, police said at the time.
His body was found on a sidewalk adjacent to the common area, police said.
At the time of his killing, Armstead was working at an auto service center in Columbia and was uninsured, and his wife was unemployed, Salima said in 2006.
Howard County police paid for his burial in New York, where the couple was from.
After her husband’s shooting, Salima Armstead lost her federal housing assistance and was temporarily homeless. She eventually found shelter at the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center, in Columbia, she said in the interview three years ago, and later landed a job at a local Wal-Mart and moved to Baltimore County with her three children.
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