Injured Deputy at Shock Trauma After Eastern Shore Shooting: Police

BALTIMORE, MD — A deputy from the Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office was critically injured in a shooting Thursday that left another man deceased, according to Maryland State Police. The incident occurred while the deputy was handling a domestic violence call on the Eastern Shore.

Deputy Warren Scott Hogan, 32, who has been with the sheriff's office for four years, was accompanying a woman to a Chestertown home after midnight to collect her things when her boyfriend who lived there produced a shotgun and fired at the officer, officials said.

Police said the deputy and suspect exchanged gunfire before 12:30 a.m.

The suspect — identified as James Rich II, 54, of the 200 block of Edmore Road — was taken to Chester River Hospital in Chestertown, where police said he was pronounced deceased.

The deputy was flown to the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he was in critical condition from a gunshot wound and required surgery.

Maryland State Police was handing the investigation into the incident, at the request of Queen Anne's County Sheriff Gary Hofmann.

Preliminary investigation indicated that Hogan had initially gone with another deputy to the residence at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday after the woman texted her father and asked him to call police because she and Rich had gotten into a physical altercation.

When Hogan and another officer responded to that call, they found nobody home at the residence.

Police said that the woman's father had picked her up and taken her to the sheriff's office, where Hogan then took the domestic violence report. The deputy escorted her and her parents upon request to return to the single-story house to get her things, according to officials, who said that Rich and his teenage son were home.

The victim and Rich got into another argument, at which point he went into a back room, retrieved a shotgun and returned, shooting Hogan at close range, according to authorities.

Hogan was wearing a body camera, which will be reviewed as part of the investigation, police said.

Image courtesy of Queen Anne's County Office of the Sheriff.