Update: Suspect vehicle located in judge shooting, suspect still at-large

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Authorities have recovered a silver Mercedes last known to be driven by Pedro Argote, the man who is being sought in Thursday night’s fatal attack on a Maryland judge who ruled against Argote in a divorce proceeding earlier that day.

The vehicle was found at around 11 a.m. in a remote wooded area in Williamsport, Maryland, near the border with West Virginia.

Washington County Sheriff Brian Albert said police are searching vacant buildings in the area, which he called the tannery property.

“We’re going to catch this guy,” Albert said. “It’s just a matter of time. We don’t feel that the community’s at risk here in Williamsport or in the surrounding areas, we just ask that you avoid the search area.”

Argote is wanted in connection with the slaying of Washington County, Maryland Circuit Judge Andrew Wilkinson, who was shot in the driveway of his home in Hagerstown on Thursday evening. The attack came just hours after Wilkinson granted a divorce to Argote’s wife and gave her custody of the couple’s four children.

Wilkinson was transported to Meritus Medical Center, where he died of his injuries.

The shooting was a “targeted attack,” Albert said Friday.

The U.S. Marshals Service on Friday offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Argote’s arrest and called the search an interstate manhunt. Argote has ties in Brooklyn and Long Island, New York, Tampa and Clearwater, Florida, Columbus, Indiana, and unknown cities in North Carolina, the Marshals Service said.

Albert said Saturday that it was not clear how long Argote’s vehicle was in the wooded area off Bottom Road, where it was found by a local resident Saturday. Police have obtained a search warrant for the Mercedes but have not yet searched it, Albert said.

Albert noted that the site is near a railroad track, the C&O Canal Towpath and other local roads.

Authorities said Friday that Argote is considered armed and dangerous. He is 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call law enforcement.

Investigators have not said how they developed Argote as a suspect in the killing.