UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — The shattered family of sword attack victim Anthony Cunningham said the 63-year-old man was attacked and killed by a neighbor while cleaning the carpet in his apartment complex hallway on his day off.
Family members say they do not know what may have sparked the attack and that Cunningham did not know the neighbor accused of killing him with a sword.
Prince George's County Judge Donnaka Varner Lewis ordered the alleged attacker 33-year-old Aaron Matthew Bynum, to be held without bail for a mental health evaluation during a brief court appearance Tuesday.
Cunningham's family fears the order may be the first step toward Bynum avoiding accountability for what they say was a completely senseless murder.
“My father was a good man, a family man. He loved me, my sister, his wife and his grandkids. I don’t know what to say,” said Jamial Cunningham, the victim's son, outside court.
Investigators said witnesses called 9-1-1 Friday afternoon after finding Bynum in an elevator of the Oakcrest Tower Apartments in District Heights standing over the body of Cunningham while holding a sword, according to court documents.
Bynum told officers at the scene “God told me to do that,” according to investigators.
Bynum later assaulting a detective while being interviewed a police station saying “I’m the ultimate threat,” according to court testimony by prosecutors Tuesday.
According to his Jamial Cunningham, his father ran a carpet cleaning and detailing business and had taken a day off to spruce up his own sixth floor hallway when the attack happened.
Bynum also lives on the hallway.
The Cunningham family is mystified about what may have triggered the attack.
“I don’t think my father knew him," Jamial Cunningham said.
"They have witnesses that said when they came up on the guy he was foaming at the mouth. Pretty much there's nothing we can do until it plays out in court and from what I just heard he can plead insanity and then get back on his meds and this could take years," Cunningham said.
Bynum has no prior criminal record, his public defender attorney said Tuesday.