An aspiring rap artist from South Portland was arrested Monday night after allegedly murdering two Westbrook residents in front of their 7-year-old and 11-year-old children.
Marcel Lagrange, Jr., 24, has been charged with two counts of murder and is currently being held without bail at the Cumberland County Jail.
Just five days ago, LeGrange was releasing music he produced on YouTube.
The music was produced as part of the Maine Inside Out project, a Lewiston-based nonprofit that enriches the lives of incarcerated youth through theater and the arts.
In 2021, LaGrange was on an Maine Inside Out livestream in which he talked openly about his previous brushes with the law.
“I’ve done a lot of stuff, I’ve made a lot of bad choices and mistakes,” LaGrange said.
“I’m just trying to better myself. I’m trying to be more humble. I’ve always been humble,” he said.
He also said in the video that he had a pending arson charge, a charge he described as unfair, which was complicating his search for housing.
“I’m just trying to be me and contribute to society,” he said.
The Maine State Police identified the deceased murder victims as 37-year-old Brittany Cockrell and 41-year-old Michael Hayter, both of Westbrook.
While the children witnessed their parents’ murder, they were not physically harmed.
From MSP:
On Monday, June 19th, 2023, at approximately 8:28 pm, the Westbrook Police Department responded to a shooting complaint near the intersection of Main Street and Bridge Street in Westbrook. Officers arrived and observed a male suspect shooting a female near a vehicle in the parking lot off of Bridge Street. A foot pursuit of the suspect began back down Main Street in the direction of Armory Apartments. The armed gunman physically assaulted a bystander during his pursuit but was then tackled and disarmed by several other bystanders. Responders discovered two deceased individuals, a female near the vehicle and a man inside the vehicle in the parking lot off of Bridge Street. Also discovered inside the vehicle were the victim’s two children, an 11-year old boy and a 7-year-old girl who both witnessed the shooting. The children were not injured. The injured bystander hurt during the suspect’s pursuit has been identified as 75-year-old Fred Roukey of Westbrook. He was transported to Maine Medical Center with minor injuries.
According to state criminal records, LaGrange was no stranger to the law.
In June of 2018, he was charged as an adult in Cumberland County with giving false information to a law enforcement officer. In October of that year, he was charged with misdemeanor terrorizing. He pled guilty to those charges and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
A few days later, he was charged with felony assault on an officer, assault, and criminal mischief.
In September of 2020, the South Portland police charged LaGrange with domestic violence, and those charges were later dismissed. In December of that year, he was charged with arson, criminal threatening, and assault, though the arson charge was later dismissed. He was sentenced to six months incarceration.
In June of 2021, Portland police charged LaGrange with assault, resisting arrest, and violating the terms of his release. He was incarcerated for another four months.
Social media accounts that appear to belong to LaGrange show him smoking marijuana and posing with a handgun.
The Maine State Police have not released any information about how he was able to obtain the fire arm.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="20376 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=20376">45 Comments
MAINE WIRE — thank you for giving us the “real story,” including his criminal background. This is what we usually DON’T SEE from the LapDog Maine Media. And may God help those poor children.. let’s hope they have some family to care for and love them.. lifetime trauma from this horrific incident.
The only positive? if there’s any real justice, after this latest round of BAD DECISIONS, Marcel’s concerns about “housing” are over.
You guys make it seem like any con/jailbird similar to this can’t get a fire arm and just like this take innocent people because the system wants let people like this out and about and be able to possess a fire arm ……no one cares
Those half black half white devils peoples are scary folks.
Somebody get a rope!
I love farthing on titties and being an old pervert. That’s why I married a woman in the government. When Marcel is released I want him to come to my house in nh and make waffles. I bet his cock is nice and long like my child’s.
I would like to know exactly how he was able to obtain a firearm. Like Chicago, what laws already on the books are not being enforced that would have stopped this murderer from obtaining a firearm. Governor Mills, Marxist extremist democrats, that would include the Maine ACLU, have the horror/blood of this unspeakable incident on their hands because I will tell you exactly how this person got his gun. The cartels are here. Guns Drugs and money and lots of all three. Extremist democrats are purposefully to soft and even sympathetic to their trade(s) by suppressing any real hard ball law enforcement. Police are out gunned and out moneyed as a result of the extremist democrats playing the fiddle for BLM and other Marxist organizations. If Mainer ever wakes up, this all can be stopped. But it has to wake up.
These comments are so reprehensible! This man committed murders. Are you going over to the story of the white guy who murdered his own three children and leaving these types of messages? No? Of course not! Racist people are just as horrible as this murderer in the story!
– Sara
Those posts are by trolls who want to shut down controversial topics when readers engage in comments. Previously they would spam gibberish with multiple nonsensical posts. Word salad. This one is throwing as much hate as possible. More subtle ones are “fact checking”.
Move on to another article and have a wonderful day.
They turned maine into a 3rd world state filled with 3rd world savages. Stop importing these savages
Strap yourselves in, folks. We ain’t seen nothing yet. These (whatever they are – I have no words) are coming out of their closets now in droves, getting all wound up, crazy, hateful, and armed. Gives all new meaning to “stay home, save lives”. The lives we save may be our own.
Hi Steve, remove the hate speech in the comments if you want anyone to take this site seriously.
No such thing as hate speech this is america clown, there is only free speech. Also imagine comparing “racism” to murder like its the same thing, low IQ takes all around..
N
TND
Perhaps we don’t need any more diversity in Maine?
This is the result of repeated hate speech propeganda and blood libel against whites spewed by the (((media))) as long as the media remains solely in their hands, you can count on this continuing
“These comments are so reprehensible! This man committed murders. Are you going over to the story of the white guy who murdered his own three children and leaving these types of messages? No? Of course not! Racist people are just as horrible as this murderer in the story!” – Sara
It’s incredible that you think that making racially biased statements online (which can backed by well-documented crime statistics) is just as offensive as murdering two innocent people in front of their small children. What an indictment of the American education system.
Never relax around dindus
Why are you promoting this murderous nigger’s album, as if the act was just some sort of promo stunt?
This article is garbage and the journalist should be fired for linking his album and that non profit.
Remember that Lincoln wanted to send all them back to Africa. American Colonization Society look it up. They wouldn’t even be in this country right now if there was any feasible way to send them back. At the time the cost to send them back was calculated and there were not enough transcontinental ships that could hold all of them.
They are not part of a cohesive and high trust society. When they are around you can never relax. We’ve known this for a long time but for some reason people keep saying we can get along with them, but the experiment has failed. We need a society where everyone shares the same common heritage and background. This country was settled by White Europeans and for the better part of those days it was a 99% white country.
nigger
I’m disappointed this article didn’t go even more into the poor murderer’s great life. We need to have more sympathy for murderers, don’t we? Never mind the innocent parents and their orphaned children. Let’s hear more about the scum criminal.
Darn these…. aspiring rap artists! How about information about the two young parents he brutalized??? Why do you link his music and the nonprofit as if it should be celebrated? It clearly didn’t help this scholar fix his life. He murdered 2 people and ruined the lives of untold others with his crime and you want to talk about his rap music? This is why this country is dead.
Wow, I can’t believe this Black future astronaut will have to spend the rest of his life in prison just for this little mistake. He shouldn’t have to fear for his life just for shooting two people in front of their children! We need to do better. #blacklivesmatter
anyone surprised?
Everyone point at Sara and laugh.
Yes, racism is as bad a murder, you mutant. You are why these geniuses have records a mile long and continue to victimize the innocents. Did the article about the father who murdered his sons include sympathetic information about his aspirations in employment? No? Okay. Shut up, stupid.
Wow could you make it any more obvious you are only concerned about the Mulato criminal murderer and you could give 2 fucking shits about the dead parents and orphaned children?
“While the children witnessed their parents’ murder, they were not physically harmed.”
Oh that’s great to know I’m sure they are totally fine having only just witnessed their parents brutal murder. Disgusting!
Even in a o5% white state you can be murdered by a feral pavement ape.
White patience has its limits.
There will inevitably be a day of the rope.
Even in a 95% white state you can be murdered by a feral pavement ape.
White patience has its limits.
There will inevitably be a day of the rope.
Sad to see two more people lost to violent racism. It is guaranteed the mainstream media will not even pick this up. An unarmed innocent woman was executed, probably with her hands up, and it is just like the rest of horrible murders in this country that are sky high in statistics but will never make the television news. This is real racism and they’ll have a hundred excuses why it is not but then give a hundred reasons why light colored bandaids are “white supremacy” (real topic on news once). This should be prosecuted as a hate crime, but we all know it won’t and even this article itself dares not mention race.
I was Marcel’s middleschool teacher in a special needs program. I never, ever imagined this ten years ago.
Oh god, please kill all the niggers and they shit babies
Why did god create niggers? Did he want to curse us?
what the hell focusing on the perps ‘good things’ he does? so I guess the killings aren’t as bad as we think? maybe he didn’t realy want to kill them? just a random murder? murderers are people too? it really wasn’t his fault? despicable marxist rhetoric.
I’m at a loss for words. This is absolutely astounding. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why this nigger did what niggers are known for doing. Maybe the liquor store was out of Hennessy or grape drink? Perhaps the couple stepped on his $300 basketball shoes, paid for with taxpayer money? Or maybe he looked in the mirror and finally realized all he would ever be, a dirty, filthy, shit skinned colored nigger. Considering they lack prefrontal cortex’s, from archaic admixture with a less evolved great ape, it’s not likely the latter. They cannot comprehend action-consequence. It is almost cruel to expect them to behave in a civilized way and function in a White society. It would be like expecting your dog to learn English, and wondering why they aren’t figuring it out. The only solution at this point is unfortunately total nigger death.
These comments are so despicable and hateful. We all should be concerned about the children who witnessed their parents death. No matter who commits the crime, better laws should be passed or states should enforce their laws concerning violence of this sort. I know for a fact the person who committed this crime suffered from mental illness and more supports/resources should be provided to help prevent incidents such as this. My heart goes out to both families in this tragedy.
Diversity is our greatest strength?
These comments reflect how people feel. This feral animal should have been in jail with a rap sheet that long – why doesn’t the author focus on why he was not incarcerated in the first place? Pathetically, the article is focused on his aspiring rap career. Let’s pass laws that protect people from these monsters, or rather enforce the laws on the books. No selective prosecution. There is no fixing this – people like this are incompatible with society. I dont care that he was mentally ill. That is what jail is for. Polite society will keep running interference for these criminals until they are themselves victimized.
Addressing Sad for Maine: So you are comfortable with these racists comments attacking the ethnicity of a criminal rather than the concern of how to prevent actions such as this. No one ever said his actions were excusable because of mentally illness. I’ve worked in the mental health field and I see the flaws where individuals don’t get the help they need and are released into society without resources. What you don’t understand that many times there is a lead up to these behaviors before individuals commit these crimes. If you read earlier comments this individual’s teacher even said he would have never imagined this from him. It’s not about being polite it’s about finding resolution!
Concerned Citizen: Once you get to adulthood, nobody gives a shit what ‘lead up to these behaviors’. Act like a responsible adult or be removed from society.
Wow. Count on the Maine Wire to have am unmoderated comment section full of folks who are just as mentally unhinged as criminal in this article.
Its the Maine Red Claws fault.. its all because of the G league.. The salt is creamy due to the acidic rain.. Tical
He is not a great rapper either
I’m surprised they’re not saying that he did it in self defense
I hope he loses that eye.