News Releases

Detectives Investigate Police Involved Shooting; Burglary at Gun Store in Rockville

For Immediate Release: Thursday, June 13, 2019

The Montgomery County Department of Police - Major Crimes Division and the Firearms Investigations Unit, are investigating an incident that occurred early this morning in Rockville when an officer responded to a burglary-in-progress at the United Gun Store located in the 5400 block of Randolph Road.

On June 13th, at approximately 2:35 am, the Emergency Communications Center (911) was notified the United Gun Store in Rockville was being burglarized.  The caller provided a lookout for five suspects, described as black males, to the call taker.

An officer from the 1st District responded to the scene, arriving at 2:39 a.m., and encountered a white SUV in front of the store.  As the officer exited his police cruiser, the white SUV accelerated towards the officer and struck the officer's police cruiser, disabling it.  During the encounter, the officer discharged his service weapon.

The white SUV traveled down Randolph Road approximately a quarter mile where it became disabled.  Four suspects exited the white SUV and fled on foot into the surrounding area.  Additional responding officers encountered the white SUV in the travel lanes of Randolph Road. A fifth suspect was located unresponsive in the vehicle with a gunshot wound.  Officers removed the unresponsive suspect from the vehicle to take life-saving actions that were ineffective.  The suspect was deceased on the scene.  The remaining four suspects are still outstanding.

Preliminary investigation into the events revealed that the suspects arrived at the United Gun Shop in two vehicles that were reported stolen out of Anne Arundel County.  One vehicle was used to ram through the front of the store in order to gain entry.  Once inside, the suspects stole numerous firearms, then attempted to flee the scene in the white SUV where they encountered the responding officer.

Following the established procedure, once Major Crimes detectives complete their investigation of the officer-involved shooting, the findings will be submitted to the Howard County’s State’s Attorney’s Office for review.*

Per standard procedure, the involved officer has been placed on administrative leave pending review.

Detectives are asking for the public's assistance to identify the suspects in this incident.  Anyone with information should contact the Major Crimes Division at 240-773-5070.  To be eligible for a reward, tipsters may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477) or enter a tip online. Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided to them that leads to an arrest and/or indictment of the suspect.  Tipsters may remain anonymous.

{*An established agreement between the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office stipulates that when an officer-involved shooting involving injury or death occurs in one county, the other county’s State’s Attorney’s Office will review the event.}

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CTJ

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Release ID: 19-218
Media Contact: mcpnews 
Categories: burglary