Sheriff: Mother and father shot in bed in Frederick County, “out of anger”

A couple in New Market, Maryland, were gunned down early Sunday morning as they lay in bed while their children hid in the house in what authorities called a “tantrum.”

The two victims were identified as Crimea Malita Baker, 33, of New Market, and Sean Antoine Lange, 34, of Arlington, Virginia, according to the Frederick County Sheriff's Office.

The children found by authorities in the home are all under the age of 13 and unharmed, the sheriff's office said. Baker was the mother of all four children in the home and Lange was the father of one of the children.

Investigators do not believe the shootings were random or pose a threat to the community.

“This was clearly a murder of rage by an angry, upset individual,” Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said at a news conference Tuesday.

Authorities have not released any information about the suspect.

Officers were called to the home in the 7000 block of Mandalong Court in New Market around 7 a.m. Sunday for what they said was a shooting, the sheriff said. Inside the home, they found the bodies of Baker and Lange in bed in an upstairs bedroom with numerous gunshot wounds.

Jenkins said 42 shots were fired at the two victims at close range.

Based on the conversation with the children who were in the house at the time of the crime, authorities believe the shooting occurred around 1:30 a.m.

The sheriff said that based on conversations with the children, it appears they “hid in the house until morning until they felt safe to find out what had happened.”

One of the children went upstairs and discovered the bodies in the bedroom, the sheriff said.

The sheriff added: “This was truly a heinous, targeted double murder – a crime of rage and anger,” Jenkins said. “This is the kind of crime that shocks the conscience of everyone in Frederick County.”

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