Two police killed in Maryland shooting, gunman dead

Two law enforcement officers in the US state of Maryland have been fatally shot by a gunman who was later killed by police near a Baltimore-area restaurant filled with customers.

A sheriff’s deputy was shot on Wednesday inside a Panera Bread restaurant in Abingdon, Maryland, after he responded to a disturbance call by someone in the restaurant, said Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler.

A second deputy chased the suspected shooter outside the restaurant and was also wounded. Both deputies died of their injuries, Gahler wrote on the Harford County Sheriff Department’s Facebook page.

At least two other deputies fired several shots and killed the suspect, who was identified as David Brian Evans, a white 67-year-old man.

Gahler said Evans entered the Panera restaurant during the busy lunchtime rush. Someone called the police to say that a man was behaving suspiciously in the restaurant.

“I think the suspect took that action because he was wearing a police uniform,” Gahler said of the deputy who was shot. “He certainly targeted him.”

Evans had warrants out for his arrest in Harford County and Florida, where he was accused of assaulting a police officer.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued a statement Wednesday night about the deputies’ deaths. “Today’s violence in Abingdon and the deaths of two Harford County sheriff’s deputies is nothing less than absolutely heartbreaking,” he said.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), firearms are the cause of death for more than 33,000 people in the United States every year, a number that includes accidental discharge, murder and suicides.