WASHINGTON – An hours-long standoff between police and a disgruntled landscaping employee, who used mulch as a barricade, ended Monday with the worker’s apparent suicide.
Montgomery County police were called to Brookville Landscaping Supply Co., in the 8900 block of Brookville Road, at 8:10 a.m. for reports of a man with a gun. Officers saw the unnamed employee of the company barricading himself with mulch and other building materials and called in tactical officers.
Police tried to negotiate with the employee by cellphone but he did not respond, officials say.
About four hours later, officers heard a gunshot. Investigators determined that the man had killed himself, police say.
No one else was injured.
Co-workers told police that the employee was upset when he arrived to work in the morning and got a gun out of his car. He fired a round into a pile of much and also aimed the shotgun at coworker. Police say he then buried himself in the pile of mulch.
Two nearby schools took extra security precautions during the standoff. Brookville Road near Walter Reed-Forest Glen Annex has reopened to traffic.
Police say they are investigating what led to the standoff and the man’s death.
