Trooper shoots, kills man at gas station

Maryland State Police say a trooper was involved in a shooting at a gas station in western Maryland.

The shooting happened when a state trooper went to the Sheetz gas station in Frederick, about 50 miles west of Baltimore, and spotted a Lincoln Navigator with expired tags, state police spokesman Greg Shipley said.

The trooper called for backup, and among those responding to the scene was a Frederick City police officer in an unmarked auto.

The dead man’s name has not been released and investigators don’t yet know if he was involved in stealing the gold Lincoln Navigator in an armed robbery in Baltimore Sunday night. He jumped back into the auto and started to flee as officers boxed the vehicle in.

The Frederick police officer who was pinned in his vehicle was taken to an area hospital.

The driver jumped out of his still-moving SUV and was shot by one of the state troopers.

Two other Frederick residents, Dennis Kline and Anna Smittenaar, said the man killed was a black male in his 40s and appeared to be changing his shirt when they first pulled into the Sheetz parking lot.

At that point, the trooper with the aviation command division fired his weapon. Troopers then helped with emergency care to the individual and Frederick EMS responded.

The suspect died of his injuries.

“And as soon as [the man] got out of the SUV, [the trooper] told him to freeze and unloaded on him”, Kline said.

Police believe the driver intentionally hit the city officer to disable the vehicle, Shipley said.