Shortly after a judge ruled on his divorce yesterday afternoon, a Columbia man armed with a shotgun and handgun fatally shot his estranged wife and critically injured her daughter in a parking lot outside the historic courthouse in Ellicott City, police said.

Police said Tuse S. Liu shot his wife, So Shan Chan, and her daughter Wing Sau Wu, both of Baltimore, at close range about 2: 30 p.m. as they were walking through the lot.

Liu fired at least two shotgun rounds, Howard County police spokesman Sgt. Morris Carroll said. He then began chasing the women, who managed to wrestle the shotgun away from him. Carroll said Liu pulled out a handgun and continued shooting.

"What I saw was a shotgun come out of his car," said Thomas Shepeta, who was at the Howard County Circuit Courthouse getting a copy of a marriage certificate. "He was sitting in his car shooting at the women through the window.

"They started scattering, running around," he said of the two women. "He decided to get out, go ahead and start shooting [again]."

Samuel E. Taylor, a lawyer who was in the parking lot when the shooting took place, said: Chan "wrestled the shotgun from him. She grabbed the front of it and she tried to swing it at him like a baseball bat."

He also said Wu tried to come to her mother's defense.

As the commotion occurred outside, the courthouse remained open for business.

Police cordoned off the courthouse parking lot, where a pool of blood had formed, and questioned several witnesses as onlookers lined the yellow crime tape.

Chan, 52, of the 3600 block of Lyndale Ave. suffered three gunshot wounds, at least one to the chest. She was taken by ambulance to Howard County General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 3: 30 p.m.

Wu, 26, who lived with her mother, was hit four times, including once in the face. She was taken by MedEvac helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where she was in critical but stable condition last night.

"It appears he was out to shoot his ex-wife," said Carroll. "At some point, the mother was shot and the daughter tried to shield her. That is quite possibly why [the daughter] was shot." The whole ordeal lasted about two minutes, witnesses said.

Carroll said Liu, 49, of the 4900 block of Columbia Road, was arrested without further incident at the scene and was being held last night at the Southern District police station.

Police were drawing up charging documents. Carroll said Liu is likely to be charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault.

Liu, whose first name is listed as Tsu in the divorce papers, is scheduled to appear before a judge this morning for a bond hearing.

Divorce proceedings

According to court records, Chan sued Liu for divorce and alimony in July 1998. One month later, Liu filed a counter-complaint for divorce.

Chan's lawyer, Joseph F. Gaffigan, declined to comment yesterday. But his partner, Murray Zitver, said Circuit Court Judge Lenore Gelfman had granted the divorce and alimony.

The judge directed Chan's lawyer to prepare the divorce agreement by April 5.

Zitver said Chan's grounds for divorce were not being contested, but that Liu's counter-complaint was a "vehicle asking for various reliefs with respect to property and alimony."

He said the couple were married in February 1989 and separated in 1995.

Liu was charged with assault in February 1995 but the court dismissed the charges. Chan was listed as a witness in the case.

Liu's lawyer, Leo J. Keenan, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Hella Stevenson, the clerk in Gelfman's courtroom, described yesterday's hearing -- during which Chan, Wu and Liu took the stand -- as routine.

"I didn't hear him raise his voice," said Stevenson of Liu. "Nobody was raising their voices. It was just a very normal proceeding."

Shooting erupts

Soon, though, the shooting erupted.

Lawyer Shirley S. Massey was in her office in an old house on the southern edge of the parking lot.

"I called 911," she said. "I heard a gunshot and then I heard several more. It sounded like automatic weapons fire. I told everyone to stay away from the windows.

"That's the closest I've been to a crime scene for a while, and not something I'd like to repeat."

Shepeta, who witnessed the incident, said shouts preceded the shooting. They were "yelling things out in a foreign language."

After Liu fired several shots, Chan "got the shotgun out of his hand. He had it up in the air to reload, I think. She got it out of his hand, and kicked him and pushed him. He turned around and pulled his handgun out from under his coat.

"He had a handgun all ready to go. He was ready to go. He hit them both but he continued to empty the revolver on top of them."

At JFC International, a Japanese-owned food wholesaler in Savage where Liu has worked since 1994, branch manager Yoschiaki Hirata described Liu as a serious man who got along well with his colleagues but wasn't close to any.

Liu, known only as "John" at work, was a "good worker" who often worked late or extra days, the manager said.

Hirata said that more than once over the past few years Liu had had "a problem with his wife, [her] asking for money," and that he was forced to leave his home in Baltimore because of their separation.

Robert Staggs, 44, a 16-year JFC worker and Liu's foreman, said, "He just said he had to go to court" but didn't seem upset about it.

"He was a normal guy to me. John's no problem. Whatever is going on in his life is his business," Staggs said.

Staggs was shaken by news of the shooting. "It don't make you feel good that anybody gets in trouble or gets hurt," he said.

Chan was remembered yesterday as a gentle woman who worked in a garment factory and who enjoyed watching television with friends and spending time in the garden behind her two-story rowhouse in the Belair-Edison community.

Waiting at Shock Trauma

At Shock Trauma, two friends of Chan's and her courtroom interpreter, Peter C. Yaw, stood waiting for news about Wu. A social worker told them doctors were still evaluating her condition. Wu hadn't yet learned about her mother's death.

According to friends who had gathered at Shock Trauma last night, Chan moved from Hong Kong to the United States with Wu in 1989 and married Liu.

She spoke little English -- she used a Cantonese interpreter during her court testimony yesterday -- and didn't socialize much with neighbors. "I would say hello to her, but she didn't speak much English," said neighbor Joe Daniels, 54. "That was all."

Friends and neighbors said the marriage seemed troubled and that several years ago, Chan left her husband.

Chan was reportedly hoping to use the $350 a month in alimony payments awarded her by Gelfman yesterday to pay for English lessons.

Sun staff writers Larry Carson, Alice Lukens and Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this article.

Pub Date: 3/12/99