LA PLATA, Md. (AP) — A man in a camouflage hat fired a military-style rifle at his neighbors in their Maryland home on Sunday before he was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy, authorities said.
One of the neighbors was taken to a hospital for treatment of a graze wound that wasn’t life-threatening, according to Charles County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Diane Richardson. No officers were injured in the confrontation, she said.
Investigators were trying to determine why the 59-year-old man opened fire on the neighbors from the front yard outside of their La Plata home while they were inside, Richardson said. The suspect also shattered the glass on a front door to another neighbor’s home, she added.
“To the best of our knowledge, nobody in the neighborhood had any issues with him” before the shooting, she said.
Children were among the people inside the house that the man fired shots at, according to a sheriff’s office statement.
The gunman was fatally wounded by a deputy who responded to a 911 call and fired a single shot at the suspect, according to Richardson. Officers tried to revive the gunman before paramedics arrived, Richardson said.
The suspect was pronounced dead at a hospital. His name wasn’t immediately released.
The deputy, a five-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, will be placed on administrative leave, a standard procedure under the department’s policies.
