Second Child Dies After Father Is Accused of Shooting Them

A 3-year-old girl died Friday, a day after police accused her father of shooting her and her brother and trying to cover it up with a story about a carjacking.

Police said Richard Spicknall II, 27, confessed to shooting his 2-year-old son, Richard Spicknall III, who died Thursday, and his daughter, Destiny Array Spicknall, who was severely wounded and died Friday.

Spicknall was ordered jailed without bond Friday on charges of murder and attempted murder. Police said the second charge would be changed to murder.

Police also began to investigate how Spicknall bought a gun after his estranged wife, Lisa, brought a restraining order against him.

Federal law prohibits a person under a court-issued restraining order from buying a gun for one year, but state police said Spicknall bought a 9-millimeter handgun at a College Park, Md., pawnshop nine months after his wife obtained an order against him in Howard County Circuit Court.

Spicknall called police early Thursday to report that an armed hitchhiker he picked up on a bridge had thrown him into the Choptank River and driven off with his children. Police found him dripping wet at a pay phone three hours after the purported carjacking.

Construction workers found the children in the Jeep Wrangler a half-mile away Thursday morning.

Spicknall had told their mother that he was taking their children for a vacation with their grandparents in Ocean City, Md. Court papers show Spicknall confessed about an hour after the Jeep was found.

At the bond hearing in Easton, Spicknall’s lawyer called the confession suspicious and said he would request a psychiatric evaluation.