WASHINGTON — A homeowner fatally shot two men late Saturday in what was described as an attempted home invasion in Severn, Maryland, Anne Arundel County police said. That homeowner is now facing a slew of drug and gun-related charges after a search of the residence.
According to police, one man broke into a house down the street after he was shot, apparently trying to get help for his wounds. He has been identified as 42-year-old Duwayne Thomas Mason, of Columbia, Maryland.
The other man was found dead in a white pickup truck a short distance away. He has been identified as 40-year-old Timothy John Kerr, of Huntingtown, Maryland.
The incident happened at 11:58 p.m. on Sandy Farm Road, near the intersection of Md. Rt. 100 and Md. Rt. 170.
A homeowner told officers that the men were trying to break down his front door when he fired through the door with a shotgun.
“He stated that these two individuals showed up at his house wearing masks and wearing gloves and they were armed,” Anne Arundel County police Lt. Ryan Frashure said.
The shotgun-wielding homeowner told police that he didn’t know the men, and that he had told the masked men to leave and threatened to shoot them.
Frashure said witness statements and evidence at the scene corroborated the homeowner’s account of what happened.
“We’re still trying to determine exactly how these individuals knew this is where this person lived and why they went there to target him,” Frashure said.
However, police announced late Monday that the homeowner, identified as 52-year-old John Matthew Garrison, has been charged with drug- and gun-related offenses.
Police say during a search of the home, officers found suspected crack cocaine, powder cocaine, marijuana, amphetamine dextroamphetamine pills, alprazolam pills, suboxone film strips and heroin. Also discovered was a digital scale, $6,140 and a loaded 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun.
Police were initially contacted by a woman who thought a man was burglarizing her home, which happened to be a few doors down from the alleged attempted home invasion.
The woman told police that a man pounded on her front door and eventually broke in through a window before dying on her living room floor.
The second gunshot victim was found nearby on Sandy Farm Road.
Garrison has been charged with possession of cocaine, possession of crack cocaine, possession of amphetamine dextroamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, possession with intent to distribute amphetamine dextroamphetamine and possession of a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime.
Garrison was being held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on a $350,000 bond.
Police say they are piecing together the chain of events and circumstances that led to the shooting deaths of Mason and Kerr, and are working with the county States Attorney’s Office to determine if any other criminal charges apply to this investigation.
