Howard County police quickly identified the suspects in separate homicides that took place within 24 hours of each other earlier this week in Columbia, and both were in police custody as of Wednesday, Sept. 14.

Dominique Davon McDonald, 21, whose last known address was in the 9700 block of Clocktower Lane in Kings Contrivance, is facing one count each of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault, police department spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said.

Police accuse McDonald of shooting Nichole Bernadette McNair, a 42-year-old woman of the 4300 block of Nichols Avenue in Baltimore, who was serving as his bail bondswoman. The shooting occurred late Monday, Sept. 12, in the 8700 block of Hayshed Lane in Long Reach. Police announced his arrest Wednesday morning. He was being held at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup on $2 million bond, according to online court records.

Also Wednesday morning, an arrest warrant on a charge of first-degree murder was issued for Anthony Patrick Parker, a 53-year-old of no fixed address. He is suspected of stabbing Phillip Edward Wise, a 46-year-old also of no fixed address, Tuesday, Sept. 13, in the 5500 block of Harpers Farm Road, in Harper's Choice.

Police announced at 6:30 p.m Wednesday that Parker had turned himself in to police "a short time ago without incident."

McNair and Wise's deaths bring the total number of homicides in Howard County in 2011 to four. There were five homicides in the county in 2010.

In the Long Reach homicide, police received multiple phone calls reporting at least one gunshot in the Longreach House Condominiums complex at about 10 p.m. Monday. They arrived to find McNair wounded, and the car she was driving was still running, Llewellyn said. She was taken to Howard County General Hospital in critical condition and died overnight.

Detectives believe McDonald was a client of McNair's and had arranged to meet her on Hayshed Lane to pay bail money owed for a recent unrelated case against him. Paperwork in McNair's car indicated she was collecting money from McDonald, Llewellyn said.

Police searched woods near Hayshed Lane and found McNair's cell phone and the back piece of a Samsung cell phone later determined to be McDonald's, police said.

Police tracked McDonald to an apartment in the 8800 block of Tamar Drive where he had been staying. They spotted McDonald leaving the building, stopped him, and found the other half of the Samsung phone, Llewellyn said.

A search of the building turned up a hooded jacket — witnesses had reported seeing a man wearing one running from the scene — and a loaded handgun, both in a common area of the building's basement, police said.

On Tuesday, in the Harper's Choice homicide, police were called at about 4:30 p.m and told that a man was bleeding in a parking lot at the Fall River Terrace housing complex.

The caller told police he had been inside his apartment when he heard his car alarm go off. When he arrived at the vehicle, he found Wise lying near it.

Police believe Wise might have activated the alarm when he collapsed against the car before hitting the ground. He was taken to Howard County General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Witnesses spotted Parker and Wise with a group of people hanging out around a silver van in the complex's parking lot. They told detectives that Parker and Wise had an altercation, and Parker and several other people then drove away in the van, Llewellyn said.

Police identified the van's registered owner and found the vehicle, which had blood on its front fender, parked on Columbia Road, Llewellyn said. Its owner has not been charged with a crime.

There were two homicides earlier this year in Howard County.

A 17-year-old boy was stabbed and killed in July in his home in the 8700 block of Airybrink Lane, which is also in Long Reach and about a half-mile from where Monday's shooting occurred. An 18-year-old Columbia man was arrested and is facing trial.

The same week, the April death of a 3-year-old Oakland Mills boy was ruled a homicide after an autopsy by the Maryland medical examiner's office determined he had been asphyxiated. No arrests have been made in the case.