Officers Kill Suspect Who Fatally Shot Driver, Injured Another: Police

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — The suspect police say is responsible for several overnight vehicle thefts and the shooting of at least two people died after being shot by two New Carrollton police officers early Tuesday morning, authorities said.

The shooting was reported early Tuesday morning in the 7500 block of Annapolis Road in the New Carrollton area. Fox5 reported the involvement of two officers in the suspect's shooting. They were uninjured; the suspect has not been identified.

Washington, D.C., police officers had been searching for the man they say stole several vehicles in a short period of time and shot at Metro police officers, WTOP reported. In one incident, the gunman is believed to have fatally shot a man during a carjacking, Jeffery Carroll, the assistant chief of D.C. police, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

New Carrollton officers on patrol spied a disabled SUV parked in the road around 4:45 a.m. Tuesday. They learned that the SUV had been reported as a carjacked vehicle in another jurisdiction within Prince George’s County. Officers began searching the area for occupants of the vehicle when a man walked up to them and pulled out two handguns. The two officers discharged their service weapons, hitting the man. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. No officers were injured. The confrontation between the man and the officers happened in front of a laundromat in the 7500 block of Annapolis Road near the intersection with Veterans Parkway.

“Throughout the evening, we were coordinating with our law enforcement partners, obviously trying to locate where this vehicle was; some of the challenges were the multiple vehicles that were changing and even crossing the jurisdictional boundaries,” Carroll said at the news conference. “Some of the methods that we use to try to locate the individuals were not successful.”

The shooting that killed the suspect will be investigated by the Maryland attorney’s general office as is required by law. The independent investigation department typically will release the name of the deceased and discharging officers within two business days of the incident, although that period may be extended if there is a specific reason to believe that an officer’s safety is at risk.

Officers on scene were equipped with body-worn cameras. If the shooting was captured on a body-worn camera, the IID will generally release the footage within 20 business days of an incident. There may be situations where more than 20 days is necessary, including if investigators need more time to complete witness interviews, if there are technical delays caused by the need to shield the identities of civilian witnesses or to allow family members to view the video before it is released to the public.

The suspect has a criminal history in Washington, D.C., and Maryland and it’s believed he was having a mental health crisis at the time, Carroll said during the news conference.

“The violence that we saw yesterday was senseless and tragic and we know that two families are experiencing an unthinkable tragedy,” Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said at the news conference.

Timeline of events:

• Officers received a report of a shooting in the 900 block of K Street Northwest around 5:45 p.m. Monday. The suspect got into a parked vehicle and shot the driver, then left the vehicle. The driver climbed out of the vehicle and collapsed on the sidewalk. The driver is in critical condition.
• Just after 7 p.m., the suspect attempted to unsuccessfully steal a vehicle in the 1000 block of 3rd Street Northwest. He fled the scene.
• The suspect stole another man’s vehicle before fatally shooting him in the 1200 block of 3rd Street Northeast around 15 minutes later outside several luxury apartment buildings not far from Florida Avenue. The suspected shooter then stole the victim’s car and fled from the scene. The victim was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and later died. The suspect then dumped the stolen vehicle in Prince George’s County before stealing another vehicle — a Nissan Rogue, D.C. police said.
• At around 3 a.m., the suspect drove past a Washington, D.C., police cruiser on Interstate 295 near the 1st Street exit in the stolen Nissan Rogue. The suspect fired at the police cruiser, hitting the drivers side door. The officer wasn’t injured.
• The suspect was confronted in Prince George’s County and fatally shot by an officer with the New Carrollton department around two hours later, police said.