Emmetson Zeah, the 18-year-old charged in the fatal shooting near the Mall in Columbia over the weekend, was ordered held without bail at a hearing Monday.

A judge had earlier put the Columbia high school student on home detention in December related to an attempted stabbing the month before, according to court records, releasing him from jail after his arrest last year to allow him to attend school virtually.

Court records show Zeah’s GPS monitor tracked him going to various private residences, schools and parking lots. He also was not “submitting verification of his whereabouts,” according to a letter filed in court by the private home monitoring company keeping track of him; the filing was made one day before the mall shooting.Zeah is now accused of violating his home detention and fatally shooting Michael Robertson, 16, and critically wounding a 15-year-old near the mall Saturday. He is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and related charges in that case. The monitoring company, Advantage Sentencing Alternative Programs, Inc., did not return a request for comment on Monday. Their court filing alleges that Zeah left his house without permission on five different days in the week prior to their filing.

During questioning Sunday, police said Zeah admitted to involvement in a Feb. 14 attempted shooting, during which he fired several shots that did not hit anyone in the 10200 block of Twin Rivers Road in Columbia, according to charging documents. Zeah is charged with attempted first-degree murder in the Feb. 14 shooting. That shooting occurred the day after GPS monitoring first showed a violation of his home detention conditions.

A police spokesperson said the targeted individuals in the November stabbing attempt, the Feb. 14 shooting attempt and Saturday’s shooting were different; however, the headstamps on ammunition found in the Feb. 14 shooting were the same as in the Feb. 22 incident, according to charging documents.

Howard County Police wrote in charging documents for the December case that Zeah and a 15-year-old accomplice had “attempted to slash and stab” a teen, who is only identified as a “juvenile victim,” after knocking on his door. The teen had posted a video on Instagram of Zeah being assaulted in March, police wrote. That “enraged” the accomplice, who told Zeah in text messages about the video and floated killing the teen before challenging Zeah “to see who could kill more people the fastest,” police wrote.

Zeah’s attorney in that case and the mall shooting case, Henry Roland Barnes, said Monday that the state’s evidence in the stabbing case was “weak.”

In December, Barnes argued for Zeah to be released so that he could continue taking high school classes virtually. A school spokesperson confirmed that Zeah had been a student at Atholton High School but was transferred after his December arrest to virtual learning. He later joined the Passages program, which “provides enhanced services” in person for students who need more support when transitioning back to school after a “reportable offense or placement.”

Howard District Judge Wayne A. Brooks allowed Zeah to be released on home detention in December, but there were conditions: The teen needed to post a $50,000 bond and attend class, and he was only permitted to leave home for certain necessities like court proceedings, medical appointments and religious services. He was hooked up to home monitoring the same day after posting bail.

Zeah was not put back behind bars until after Saturday’s shooting near the mall. An investigation at the scene found that the victims were shot near the stairs leading from the bus stop next to Barnes and Noble to the Lidl parking lot. Zeah told law enforcement an argument had occurred and multiple people were armed with guns, according to charging documents.

Neither victim had a gun, and witnesses didn’t report seeing multiple people armed with guns, the documents said.

During a bail review hearing Monday in Howard County Circuit Court, Barnes again asked that Zeah be granted 24-hour home detention to attend school. He said he usually wouldn’t ask for a bail review and would focus on preparing for future hearings but he wanted to “at least take a shot” and give Zeah a chance to complete his education, which he said has been “completely derailed.”

Natasha M. Byus, senior assistant state’s attorney in Howard County, argued that because Zeah was already released, he had already been given “the grace of the court.”

Judge Allison Sayers said there was clear and convincing evidence that Zeah is a danger to the public and ordered that he be held without bail.

Zeah is next scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing related to the Saturday fatal shooting on March 18.

Have a news tip? Contact Kiersten Hacker at khacker@baltsun.com or @KierstenHacker on X and Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.