A Maryland man has been charged with killing his father-in-law during a struggle at the old man’s home on Saturday.
Robert W. MacMeekin, a 74-year-old attorney, was helping to protect his daughter, Alexandra Ryan, from her angry husband at the time, the Baltimore Banner reports. MacMeekin and Ryan had gone on the morning of May 2 to get a protective order against her husband, Mark Thomas Ryan, who has now been charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm.
In a hearing on May 4, he was ordered held without bond, the judge citing concerns for the safety of Alexandra Ryan and her children.
Ryan wrote in her protective order that her husband punched her in the head the night before the murder and then told her he would “handle this in a different way” before going off to search for the key to his gun safe. Ryan fled the scene to her father’s home, where her children already were. It wasn’t the first time he had been accused of harming his wife.
The Harford County Sheriff’s Office said it had not served Mark Thomas Ryan with the protection order but that it was “later served by Baltimore County Police.”
Records show that Alexandra Ryan arrived to request the order for her and her children at 8:30 a.m. and that it was granted an hour later. The orders were in hand by the sheriff’s office minutes after that. But the agency said when it went to Ryan’s home that afternoon — twice — “there was no one home.
Baltimore County officers reported to MacMeek’s home at about 2:23 p.m. on Saturday and found the attorney dead in the back patio. It’s not clear when Baltimore County served the protection order since Harford County’s last attempt was just minutes before Baltimore County was called to MacMeekin’s home.
Alexandra Ryan told detectives about the assault the night before and said that her husband had continued to contact her repeatedly throughout the day on Saturday. According to CNN, she handed the phone to her father at one point. MacMeekin denied Ryan’s demands to hand over “his” children, telling him he would need to appear in court about the protective order on Monday. Shortly afterward, Ryan arrived at MacMeek’s home.
In court on Monday — now on a murder charge instead of a protective order — Ryan’s attorney said he went to MacMeekin’s home armed because he knew his father-in-law and his wife had guns and feared for his life.. MacMeekin saw Ryan’s gun in his pocket, Richard Karceski claimed, and struggled with his client over it.
“All he wanted was to retrieve his two children and bring them back to his house,” Karceski said, according to the Banner.
The attorney said the gun accidentally discharged three times, the last shot hitting MacMeekin. Ryan then tossed the gun aside and waited for police.
Baltimore County records disputed Karceski’s claims, however. Those documents say Ryan intentionally confronted MacMeekin on the patio and pointed his gun at the older man, prompting the struggle. Then he intentionally fired several rounds at him, MacMeekin’s wife and daughter told them.
He did drop the gun and wait for police.
Featured image: Mark Thomas Ryan/Baltimore County Detention Center
