A suspect in two Montgomery County slayings is facing assault charges after he was accused of attacking another inmate at the county jail.
Rohan Goodlett, 35, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in two fatal shootings that rattled the Olney community in the spring. Assault charges have been filed against him after he allegedly attacked another inmate.
Goodlett is accused of using a “sharp object” to cut another inmate after the two had a verbal dispute, said Officer Amy Daum, a Montgomery County police spokeswoman.
She said she didn’t have further details on the weapon or what the fight was about.
The other inmate was treated for a laceration, Daum said.
Goodlett did not appear to be injured in the July 6 attack.
He was originally charged with first- and second-degree assault, but the first-degree charge was dropped.
Arthur Wallenstein, the director of the Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, said in an email that the jail has “zero tolerance in any such situation” and commended the police department’s “swift response and the filing of formal criminal charges.”
Goodlett, who has a history of mental health issues, has been jailed since March, when he was charged in the two Olney killings.
Police say he fatally shot his neighbor, 81-year-old Nazir Ahmed, in Ahmed’s home on the 19500 block of Olney Mill Road on March 18.
Then, three days later, Goodlett allegedly gunned down 41-year-old Punyasara Gedara as Gedara was walking home from work on the 3400 block of North High Street.
Goodlett is linked to the slayings through ballistics evidence recovered at the crime scenes and his house, according to prosecutors.
He had been under the supervision of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene since January 2009, after he was found guilty but not criminally responsible in a burglary and harassment case.
He was not permitted to own or carry a gun, according to the terms of his release.
No attorney in the assault case is listed for Goodlett in court records. His attorney in the murder case didn’t return a call for comment.
