Police fatally shoot man who reportedly loaded gun at Gaithersburg bus stop

Police fatally shot a man Sunday after a report that he loaded a gun at a bus stop near a crowded Gaithersburg strip mall.

The shooting occurred about 6:47 p.m. in the 9600 block of Lost Knife Road, Montgomery County Police said in a news release. A caller told police a man was loading a gun at a bus stop in front of the Montgomery Village Plaza. Montgomery County and Gaithersburg police responded to the call.

On the scene, officers located the man, attempted to use deescalation techniques, and worked to clear the plaza’s crowded parking lot.

“While interacting with the subject, the adult male took actions which caused the officers to discharge their service weapons,” police said. No officers or bystanders were injured.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene, where a handgun was recovered, police said.

Police did not immediately release how many officers fired their weapons or the name of the man killed.

But Capt. Cody Fields, Montgomery County Police’s director of media, said during a news briefing that several officers with Montgomery and Gaithersburg police fired their weapons.

The investigation into the shooting has been turned over to the Maryland attorney general’s Independent Investigations Division per state law.

Personnel with the division were at the scene Sunday night collecting evidence and speaking to witnesses.

The officers involved will be placed on administrative leave during the course of the attorney general’s investigation, Fields said.

It is the second on-duty police shooting near the Montgomery Village Plaza this year. In March, Montgomery County Police wounded a Germantown man after officers said he shot at an officer during a chase.