A man is dead after Hagerstown police officers opened fire on him outside a burning apartment building on Randolph Avenue, in an incident that unfolded just before 5 p.m. on Friday. Firefighters had been battling the blaze when they encountered the man inside the building and called for police backup, according to officials. He was later struck by officer gunfire, taken to a hospital, and pronounced dead.
According to NBC4 Washington, Hagerstown Fire Department crews were responding to an apartment fire in the unit block of Randolph Avenue when they found a man inside and requested help from the Hagerstown Police Department. Police established a perimeter around the building upon arrival, the outlet reported, and the situation escalated from there.
Man Ran Toward Officers Before Shooting
Officials said the man ran out of the house toward officers after the perimeter was formed, according to DC News Now, which reported that police said the man charged at officers during the response. Authorities told NBC4 Washington that officers gave the man verbal commands and deployed Tasers before firing their service weapons. He was struck by the gunfire and taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, per the same account.
Two knives were recovered from the scene, though it remains unclear whether the man was armed at the time of the shooting, the station reported. No officers were hurt in the encounter, and the officers involved were wearing body cameras, according to officials cited by DC News Now. EMS personnel, who were already at the scene because of the fire, transported the man to the hospital, DC News Now reported.
Investigation Now in State Hands
The Independent Investigations Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General has taken over the inquiry into the shooting, a standard step for officer-involved deaths in the state. Neither the identity of the man who died nor the names of the officers involved had been made public as of the reporting by NBC4 Washington.
The case echoes a separate deadly police-involved shooting in Middle River, where the same state Independent Investigations Division later released body-worn-camera footage of the encounter, as reported by Fox Baltimore. It is not known whether footage from the Hagerstown shooting will be released or when the state's review might conclude.
Anyone with information about the Hagerstown shooting is asked to contact the Independent Investigations Division at (410) 576-7070 or [email protected], according to DC News Now's reporting on the investigators' request.
