His neighbors remember Sean Urbanski as a Ravens fan, who liked deer hunting and played JV basketball in high school.
But according to University of Maryland Police, Urbanski was also a member of a closed Facebook group that traded in racist memes.
Urbanski is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Army Second Lieutenant Richard Collins III. The Bowie State University student was on the College Park campus last weekend, when he was stabbed to death while waiting at a bus stop.
One shocked resident of Severna Park who said Urbanski had been a friend of her children since middle school called him “a good kid.” But the mother, who did not want to be identified, also said the Alt-Reich: Nation Facebook group he belonged to is something some other young people in Severna Park are familiar with.
“I know some children who are very good kids who are a member of that group,” the mother said. But she said Urbanski did not seem the type.
“I’ve never heard him make racist remarks about anyone, black, blue, purple, orange,” the woman said. “I’m very shocked. We’re all shocked.”
Urbanski graduated from Severna Park High School in 2013. He has been described by acquaintances as “normal,” but not distinguished in any particular way.
He has no criminal record and was not in trouble as a juvenile, his attorney said.
People who know Urbanski would only offer comments to WUSA9 on the condition their names would not be made public.
Urbanski was a kinesiology major at the University of Maryland. He had studied engineering at the university before attending the Anne Arundel Community College and returning to College Park.
His mother is a financial aid systems administrator at UMD. Urbanski has at least one younger brother. His family had declined to speak with reporters.
Urbanski grew up in a well-kept ranch-style home a few blocks from his high school, which has since been demolished and replaced by a new school since his graduation.
According to the U.S. Census, Severna Park is white and affluent. More than 90 percent of the 37,634 residents are white. Median income is $125,805 annually.
The area is also politically conservative. The community voted 58 percent for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The area is represented by an Anne Arundel County Council Member with well-publicized white nationalist ties.
District 5 Councilmember Michael Peroutka was elected despite once serving as a board member for the League of the South, an organization classified as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Some residents are working to organize a “Unity” event to counter any perception that the Severna Park community is influenced by an undercurrent of racism or hate.
“Hate can spread like a virus and spread quickly unless someone steps up to counter it,” said Amanda Fielder, a political consultant from the neighboring community of Arnold, who is running against Peroutka in an upcoming primary.
Fielder said the recent arrest of two teens in Crofton accused of hanging a noose at a middle school, and the arrest of Urbanski make it a good time to organize community members and students to oppose racism and open a community dialogue.
“There is banter going on that this stuff somehow has a racist base here and that simply is not the case,” Fielder said. “We want to show our students we can change the conversation.”
Plans for an event are not yet complete, Fielder said.
