A 22-year-old assisted living employee accused of disguising himself in long female wigs and executing an 87-year-old millionaire philanthropist he treated nightly, is now also charged with shooting at a Maryland state trooper Tuesday while on the run.

The Montgomery County Department of Police’s Major Crimes Division confirmed during a news conference on Wednesday that Marquis Emilio James, 22, of White Marsh, Maryland, was arrested in connection with the Valentine’s Day homicide of 87-year-old Robert G. Fuller Jr. at the Cogir Potomac Senior Living Facility, and the shooting of a Maryland State Police trooper Tuesday during a traffic stop in West Baltimore.

James, who had been employed as a medication technician at the senior living facility since October, was allegedly seen on surveillance footage entering and exiting through a tampered courtyard door around the time Fuller was fatally shot in the head in his apartment.

Nothing appeared to have been taken from Fuller’s home during the crime, according to Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada.

Investigators later determined the door’s alarm sensor had been disabled in January — on a day when James had been the only person seen using the door.

During a search, folded paper towels used to prop doors open on the day of the murder and again days later, were found by police.

Yamada said that days after Fuller’s death, James was found inside the facility after his shift ended, gave a suspicious explanation to other workers, triggered another exterior door alarm, and fled when a supervisor was going to be notified. 

The door he used to exit had also been tampered with, according to authorities.

At about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, a Maryland State Police trooper pulled over James’ car to conduct a traffic stop after noticing he was missing license plates.

As the trooper approached the car, James, who was driving, suddenly opened the car door and fired two shots, said Maryland State Police Lt. Col. Steve Decerbo.

The bullets narrowly missed the trooper by inches, and he only sustained minor injuries.

“Without a doubt, our Maryland State trooper escaped an outcome that could have ended much differently,” Decerbo said.

James immediately drove away, and investigators later recovered a shell casing from the scene that matched ballistic evidence from Fuller’s murder, linking the two cases.

Montgomery County Police, Maryland State Police and the U.S. Marshals took James into custody Wednesday afternoon in Rockville after a brief foot chase.

James is charged in Montgomery County with first-degree murder, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

He is being held without bond, with a court hearing scheduled.

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While conducting two search warrants in Baltimore County, investigators recovered “numerous” wigs and a mask, consistent with what appeared to be a disguise in surveillance footage.

Police initially said there was no clear description of the person’s gender or race, adding the suspect seen in the footage could be male or female due to the long wig.

Yamada added police “do not have a good sense of why” James allegedly shot and killed Fuller.

“Upon speaking with him, he said their relationship was very good, and he would never have hurt Mr. Fuller,” he said. “So we’re hopeful that as we get further in … we’re going to get a better sense of what was going on behind the scenes, what types of communications Marquis James had, [and] what he was searching on his electronic devices. We’re hopeful that that’s going to lead us to a better sense of why.”

Yamada would not confirm if James had a criminal record.

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Maine State Rep. Bill Bridgeo, who met Fuller while working as city manager in Augusta, told NBC 4 Washington Fuller was a prominent attorney and a retired Navy Reserve officer.

Bridgeo told the local station Fuller donated millions to the community to build a new YMCA, hospital and expand a high school.

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That was more than what every other city department spent on overtime combined, though it was a slight drop from the $103 million the police department spent on overtime in 2024.

High overtime spending inside the police department has long been controversial and a source of frustration for police-reform advocates. Last year’s nine-figure total comes as Mayor Michelle Wu warns of a challenging budget season to come for the city, which is grappling with inflation and the possibility of more federal funding cuts.

In a December letter, Wu told the city council that she instructed city department heads to find ways to cut 2 percent of their budgets in the next fiscal year. She also imposed a delay on new hires. Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper has also proposed cutting somewhere between 300 and 400 positions next fiscal year due to budget constraints.

Overall, the city spent about $2.5 billion on employee salaries in 2025, up around 1.5 percent from $2.4 billion in 2024. The city employs roughly 21,000 workers, according to a public dashboard.

In a statement, Emma Pettit, a spokesperson for Wu’s office, attributed the payroll increase to raises, and in some cases, employees receiving retroactive pay, that were part of contracts the city negotiated with its various labor unions.

“We’re grateful to our city employees for their hard work to hold Boston to the highest standard for delivering city services,” Pettit said.

When Wu won her first mayoral race in November 2021, all of the city’s 44 union contracts had expired. Since then, Wu’s office has negotiated new agreements with all of them, and last year, agreed to a one-year contract extension with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union.

But as the city heads back to the bargaining table to negotiate extensions or new contracts with others, city leaders should keep cost at the forefront of those conversations, said Steve Poftak, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-backed budget watchdog group.

“As budgets tighten, I’m hopeful that it increases the scrutiny on these collective bargaining agreements,” Poftak said.

The top earner on the city’s payroll last year was Boston Police Captain Timothy Connolly. In addition to his $194,000 base salary, Connolly took home nearly $230,000 in overtime, about $26,000 in undefined “other pay,” and roughly $49,000 as part of a higher-education bonus, for a total of $498,145 in compensation.

Skipper, as BPS superintendent, was the 55th-highest earner among city workers, coming behind 54 members of the police department. She made a total of $378,000 in 2025.

Nearly 300 city employees made more than $300,000 last year. In contrast, Wu made $207,000, though her salary increased to $250,000 this year. More than 1,700 city employees made more than the mayor in 2025.

Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, argued that the high overtime costs in the police department are, in part, a result of understaffing.

The department is short roughly 400 rank-and-file police officers, Calderone said, meaning the department has to pay its staff to work overtime and fill vacant shifts. The average salary for an officer in the BPPA is roughly $195,000, Calderone said.

With several large events approaching, including a Boston-based fan fest around this summer’s World Cup matches and the return of a fleet of tall ships to Boston Harbor, Calderone said most of the members of his union are likely to be working the maximum allowable 90 hours a week.

“We just don’t have the bodies on the street,” he said.

The Boston Police Department and the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation — the union that represents the department’s sergeants, captains, and lieutenants — did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.

Jamarhl Crawford, an activist and former member of the Boston Police Reform Task Force, said while high spending on overtime is not new for the police department, it’s a pressing problem the city should tackle.

The police and fire departments are “essential components of the city and society in general … [and] folks should be getting a fair wage. But it also has to be within fiscal responsibility,” Crawford said.

“In another 10 years,” he continued, “with pensions and everything else, this type of thing can bankrupt the city.”

Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold. Yoohyun Jung can be reached at y.jung@globe.com.