Justin Fenton

Baltimore  Sun

5:30 p.m. EST

February 25, 2010

State prison officials said a 26-year-old New York man serving a triple life sentence for attempted murder was accidentally released from a downtown Baltimore prison Thursday.

Officials said Raymond Taylor, who was sentenced to life in prison on an attempted first-degree murder charge in 2005, was erroneously released at 2 p.m. from the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center. The Baltimore Sun reported at the time that Taylor tried to kill his ex-girlfriend and her two daughters at their Pentland Drive home in Northeast Baltimore.

Taylor pleaded guilty to shooting Tammie Johnson and her teenage daughters, Cierra Johnson and Shatera Brooks. Each was shot multiple times in the head and body with a .22-caliber handgun, prosecutors said.

Taylor was arrested in New York City days after the shooting, police said. The victims survived but have had multiple surgeries.

Anyone with information on Taylor's whereabouts is asked to immediately call 911. The Internal Investigative Unit of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is assisting law enforcement with the case and is conducting an investigation into the circumstances of Taylor's release.

Correctional services spokesman Mark Vernarelli said it was unclear how Taylor was released.

"We're working as hard as we can to find out," he said.