The suspect in a string of shootings and carjackings that stretched from D.C. into Prince George’s County, Maryland, over 12 hours and left one person dead and another wounded was fatally shot by two New Carrollton police officers early Tuesday, authorities said.
The man, who was armed, was shot and killed by the officers in Lanham after 4:30 a.m., Maryland Office of the Attorney General spokesperson Thomas Lester said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Deadly confrontation with police in Prince George’s County
Early Tuesday morning, the two New Carrollton officers noticed an occupied vehicle was stopped in the 7500 block of Annapolis Road near the intersection with Veterans Parkway in Lanham. Lester said that officers learned that the SUV had been stolen in Prince George’s County.
Police went looking for the man nearby and that’s when the suspect approached the officers, Lester said.
“During that encounter, this male produced two hand guns, during that time two New Carrollton officers discharged their service weapons, striking the man,” Lester said.
The suspect was transported to the hospital and later died. Neither officer was injured in the shooting.
When asked about whether the man shot at officers before he was shot, Lester said investigators are looking into whether there was an exchange of gunfire. The shooting will be investigated by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General under state law.
The identity of the man and the officers will be released within two business days of the shooting, Lester said.
Officers were wearing body word cameras but it’s unclear if they captured the shooting, Lester said. Any footage captured will be released within 20 business days.
Series of shootings, carjackings started in DC
At a news conference in D.C. earlier in the day, Jeffery Carroll, the assistant chief of D.C. police, said the suspect has a criminal history in D.C. and Maryland and it’s believed he was having a mental health crisis at the time.
“The violence that we saw yesterday was senseless and tragic and we know that two families are experiencing an unthinkable tragedy,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said during the news conference.
D.C. police said the trail of violence began unfolding in D.C. Monday evening.
Officers responded to the report of a shooting in the 900 block of K Street in Northwest at around 5:45 p.m., said Carroll.
The suspect got into a parked vehicle and shot the driver, he said.
The suspect got out of the vehicle and left. The driver exited and collapsed on the sidewalk outside the parked vehicle. Carroll said that victim in that shooting is critically injured.
Just after 7 p.m., the suspect attempted to steal a vehicle in the 1000 block of 3rd Street Northwest. He didn’t steal the vehicle and then ran from the scene.
The same suspect stole a man’s vehicle before fatally shooting him in Northeast D.C.’s NoMa neighborhood around 15 minutes later, police said.
According to D.C. police, the man — identified as 35-year-old Alberto Vasquez Jr. — was shot nearby the intersection of 3rd Street and N Street in Northeast, outside several luxury apartment buildings not far from Florida Avenue. The suspected shooter then stole the victim’s car and fled from the scene.
Vasquez Jr. was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and later died.
The suspect dumped the stolen vehicle in Prince George’s County before stealing another vehicle there, D.C. police said.
He then ordered a rideshare vehicle and carjacked that vehicle, D.C. police said.
Shots fired at police overnight
At around 3 a.m., that allegedly stolen vehicle drove past a D.C. police cruiser on Interstate 295 near the 1st Street exit, Carroll said. The suspect fired at the cruiser, striking the driver side door. The officer wasn’t injured.
A Maryland State Police trooper spotted a dark-colored vehicle a few lanes away while the officer was helping stranded motorists on Interstate 95 near Maryland Route 198 and Laurel around 3:30 a.m., according to Maryland State Police Superintendent Colonel Roland Butler.
Butler said the person in the vehicle, who is believed to be the suspect in the other incidents, shot at least one time — striking the trooper’s windshield.
“The trooper then took cover, the vehicle sped away,” Butler said.
The trooper checked on the stranded motorists before putting a lookout on the suspect’s vehicle. Butler said forensic analysis will help confirm if the man involved in the carjackings also shot at the state trooper.
Following that shooting, the events unfolded in Lanham that ended with police shooting and killing the man at around 4:30 a.m., Lester said.
Carroll said police don’t think there’s any connection between the victims.
Police are asking for anyone with information to contact D.C. police. Carroll said the investigation was challenged by how “multiple vehicles” were involved that crossed “jurisdictional boundaries.”
According to police data, more than 50 cars have already been stolen in D.C. since the beginning of 2024.
WTOP’s Luke Lukert contributed to this report.
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