Employee Standoff with Police Ends in Suicide

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A man reportedly upset when he arrived at his Silver Spring workplace Monday morning was in an armed standoff with police for about three hours before killing himself, authorities said.

Montgomery County Police say negotiators at the scene tried unsuccessfully to persuade the man to surrender. His name has not yet been released.

The shooting came after officers attempted to talk with the man, who had used mulch and building material to barricade himself outside a landscaping business. No one else was injured, police said.

Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger said officers tried to end the situation without bloodshed. “We did everything we could to try to resolve this” without anyone getting hurt, he told The Washington Post.

The incident began around 8:10 a.m. when police received a call for a report of a man with a shotgun at Brookville Landscaping Supply Co., in the 8900 block of Brookville Road, reports WTOP.

When officers arrived, the suspect made a barricade and fired a shot into a mulch pile outside the business. At one point, the suspect took a shotgun out of a vehicle and pointed it at an employee outside the business, police say.

Police said no hostages were taken during the standoff.

Police told the Post the employee likely shot himself at around 12:15 p.m.

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