By Kevin Rector, The Baltimore Sun
A man in a domestic dispute with his wife was fatally shot by a Maryland State Police tactical team after he shot and wounded two of the unit’s members as they entered his Allegany County home during a barricade situation early Friday morning, police said.
The man, whom police as William Charles Mackenzie, 66, was pronounced dead after being transferred for treatment to the Washington County Medical Center, police said.
The two troopers who were shot, each in their lower extremities, were both conscious and alert as they were flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in a police medevac helicopter, police said.
(The Maryland State Police says two of their officers were shot and a suspect was killed in a barricade incident Thursday night in Allegany County. Courtesy of CBS Baltimore and YouTube. Posted on Jan 26, 2018)
State troopers first responded to the couple’s home in the 11300 block of High Germany Road in Little Orleans, an isolated town between Hagerstown and Cumberland in Western Maryland, about 11 p.m. Thursday for a domestic call, police said.
The area is near Green Ridge State Forest and across a bend in the Potomac River from West Virginia.
When police arrived, the man’s wife told them that she and her husband had been “engaged in an argument” when the man allegedly brandished a handgun and threatened her with it, saying, “This ends today,” police said.
The woman told police that she and her husband then struggled, and that the gun had fired as they fell to the ground.
The woman then fled the home and ran to a neighbor’s house to call police, she told them.
Troopers surrounded the home and tried to call the man on his phone multiple times, but he didn’t answer, police said.
The state police Special Tactical Assault Team Element, or STATE team, then responded and “used the loudspeaker on their armored vehicle” to talk to the man, police said.
(The Maryland State Police says two of their officers were shot and a suspect was killed in a barricade incident Thursday night in Allegany County. Courtesy of CBS Baltimore and YouTube. Posted on Jan 26, 2018)
The man “refused police requests to surrender and repeatedly said he was not coming out,” police said.
Sometime early Friday, members of the tactical team entered the home, and the exchange of gunfire occurred, police said.
There was also a fire in the home, which police believe the suspect started around the time of their entry.
The state police homicide unit is investigating the incident.
The results of the investigation will be turned over to the Allegany County State’s Attorney’s Office for review, police said.
Original post http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-allegany-shooting-20180126-story.html
Editor’s Note: Our thoughts and prayers are with the troopers and their families as they continue recovering from their injuries.
