By Linda Wheeler and Maria Elena Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 3, 1999; Page B1

The Washington man arrested Monday evening in the 1996 shooting of an off-duty Prince George's County police officer has been questioned by authorities about a number of violent crimes in the area, including the triple slaying at a Starbucks coffee shop in July 1997.

Carl Derek Havord Cooper has not been charged in the Starbucks case. Law enforcement sources say they have no physical evidence to link Cooper to that crime.

Cooper waived extradition in D.C. Superior Court yesterday and agreed to return to Prince George's County to face an attempted murder charge in the shooting of Bruce Howard, an off-duty county police officer, in a Hyattsville park.

A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said Prince George's detectives identified Cooper as a suspect in the Howard shooting more than six months ago but held off arresting him at the request of the D.C. detectives and FBI agents investigating the Starbucks case.

Cooper, 29, has criminal records in the District and Montgomery County on a variety of charges, including armed robbery, drug possession with intent to distribute, and stealing a vehicle. He was arrested about 6:30 p.m. Monday near his home in the 1200 block of Gallatin Street NE in the North Michigan Park section of the District by members of the D.C. and Prince George's police departments and the FBI.

Yesterday his court-appointed attorney, Eduardo Juarez, told Commissioner Evelyn Coburn that Cooper had been questioned by D.C. officials on other, unspecified matters and that he would consent to no further interviews without his attorney present.

Cooper was returned to Prince George's yesterday, and county investigators were still questioning him early last night.

D.C. police had a wiretap authorized last year on Cooper's home phone, and sources familiar with the taped conversations said the tapes may link Cooper to several killings, armed robberies and other violent crimes as far away as southern Pennsylvania. Police have to prove to a judge that the target of a wiretap probably was engaged in recent criminal activity and that the telephone is likely to be used to further the crime or discuss criminal activity.

The U.S. attorney's office would not elaborate on the evidence police used to get the wiretap in the Cooper case.

D.C. police have been under enormous pressure to solve the Starbucks case, in which three young employees were slain in an apparent robbery attempt. Mary Caitrin "Caity" Mahoney, 25, Emory Allen Evans, 25, and Aaron David Goodrich, 18, were found shot to death on the morning of July 7, 1997, in the rear of the shop in the 1800 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW, just north of Georgetown.

At the time, police said they believed two gunmen fired 10 shots into the three employees. The safe in the rear room of the shop had not been opened, and nothing was reported stolen.

The case received heavy media coverage at the time, and frequent updates since, because the Burleith neighborhood rarely experienced violent crime. The Starbucks coffee company offered $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people involved in the killings.

However, police have "very little evidence to go forward with" to charge Cooper with the Starbucks case, according to a source close to the investigation.

Two handguns of different caliber were used in the Howard shooting, and two handguns of different caliber were used in the Starbucks shootings. In 1988, when Cooper was arrested in Montgomery County, police found ammunition for two different caliber handguns in the car Cooper was driving.

Mahoney's mother, Mary Belle Annenberg, said yesterday that a detective had contacted her Monday and said police intended to arrest Cooper in an unrelated case. She said she is pleased the Starbucks case may be coming to an end.

Police have "been telling us the same thing all along – that they knew who did it," Annenberg said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I'm happy the police are doing something. I hope they're right."

Annenberg said that for nearly a year after the slayings, police rarely returned her calls. Now, she said, a detective is in constant contact with Mahoney's family.

Yesterday, Prince George's Police Chief John S. Farrell declined to comment on reports that Cooper may have been involved with the Starbucks case. He said his detectives were working with D.C. police and the FBI to determine whether Cooper was involved in other crimes in the county.

"We're developing other cases out here," he said.

Farrell said investigators have recovered the gun used to shoot Howard during the 1996 robbery; another gun was found at the scene. But Farrell would not say whether tests linked the guns to the Starbucks case.

According to charging documents, a witness came forward and told police that Cooper told the informant on the day of the crime that he had committed the robbery and shooting of Howard. The witness was aware of facts that only the perpetrator would know, the documents said.

"We routinely share major case information with other investigators," Farrell said. "I appreciate the cooperation of the District police and the FBI in picking up Mr. Cooper last night."

Cooper's criminal record begins with a case in Montgomery County, where he was indicted by a grand jury on charges of possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and carrying a deadly weapon on Feb. 25, 1988. On Dec. 21, 1988, he pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine, and the other two charges were dropped. He received a suspended one-year sentence and was placed on parole for two years.

However, the records note that he broke his parole agreement when he was arrested in the District on Jan. 13, 1989, on charges of stealing a car and that he was sent to Lorton Correctional Complex. Details from District records were not available yesterday on that case.

When he was returned to Montgomery County Circuit Court for a parole hearing on Dec. 13, 1990, he was again given parole in that case. Judge Vincent Ferretti, who handled the case, made a note in the file on June 4, 1991, that read: "Keep encouraging this defendant. Thank you."

According to D.C. court records, Cooper was charged with armed robbery on Jan. 5, 1989, and later that year pleaded guilty to robbery. The records indicate he was sentenced to two years of confinement.

Staff writers Philip P. Pan, Katherine Shaver, Peter Slevin and Cheryl W. Thompson and Metro researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.