Montgomery County police officers fatally shot a man who opened fire on them during a traffic stop in Silver Spring early Wednesday, authorities said.
Four officers were involved and have been placed on administrative leave, per department policy, while the incident is investigated by a newly created unit in the Maryland Attorney General’s Office intended to handle officer-involved shootings. The incident appears to have stemmed from a shooting several blocks away in downtown Silver Spring that did not involve the police. The victim in the downtown shooting is expected to survive.
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No officers were injured.
About 4:15 a.m., an off-duty officer near the 900 block of Bonifant Street heard a gunshot and went to investigate. He found a wounded person on that block, Montgomery Police Chief Marcus Jones said during a briefing with reporters.
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The off-duty officer got a description of a car thought to be involved in the shooting — a white Mercedes-Benz — and it was broadcast over police radio.
A short time later, patrol officers spotted a white Mercedes traveling along Wayne Avenue, Jones said. Officers pulled it over at Dartmouth Avenue.
“An individual exited the vehicle with a handgun and began firing upon the officers who had stopped the vehicle,” Jones said. “Officers returned fire. The individual who was shooting at the officers was struck and has succumbed from his injuries.”
The person wounded in the Bonifant Street shooting was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive, Jones said. Police think that person knew the man in the white car, the chief said.
Police blocked off the scene as detectives from the attorney general’s Independent Investigations Division began their work.
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The attorney general’s office is expected to release the dead man’s name within two days after his family has been notified, said Thomas Lester, a spokesman for the division. The Montgomery officers involved in the shooting were wearing body cameras. That footage will be turned over to the state investigators, and the attorney general’s office hopes to release video to the public within two weeks.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) addressed the shooting during his weekly coronavirus news conference on Wednesday, emphasizing that the incident was being investigated by the attorney general’s office, which will also be in charge of releasing video.
“We are addressing the rise in violent activity in Silver Spring,” he said. “We’re going to do everything we can so that every community in Montgomery is safe from violence.”
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Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando (D-At Large) said he planned to convene an emergency meeting of Silver Spring nightclub owners on Thursday “to talk about what they’re seeing and what they need.”
“There’s going to be things happening on New Year’s Eve,” he said. “We need short-term tactical plans … we also need a structural, systemic approach.”
In a statement, the Silver Spring Justice Coalition, a group that advocates for police reform, said the shooting was the sixth by an officer in Montgomery this year.
“We look forward to the quick release of the body-worn camera footage so that the community can have as much information about what happened as possible,” the statement said. “We hope that the investigation by the new state-wide agency, will be unbiased, thorough, and transparent.”
Dana Hedgpeth and Justin Wm. Moyer contributed to this report.