A 21-year-old Crofton man was shot and critically wounded Saturday by police in his home after officers broke through the front door with a sledge hammer, according to police and neighbors who witnessed the forced entry.
A family member had called police to the home out of concern for the man's safety.
Police said the man, whom they did not name, pointed a long rifle at officers as they entered the home in the 1700 block of Chamberlain Court. A veteran Anne Arundel County police officer shot him in the abdomen, police said.
The officers and a woman who was also in the home were not injured, police said.
Officers disarmed the man and provided aid before he was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said. He was in critical condition, police said.
Anne Arundel County Police Lt. T.J. Smith said officers went to the home after a family member called 911 to express concern that the man might harm himself. The caller was not home at the time.
Officers knocked, Smith said. When there was no response, they broke the door down.
Upon entering, Smith said, an officer saw the man at the top of a staircase with the rifle and had "milliseconds to make a decision as to whether this person is going to fire."
He said police had been to the home several times in the past, but did not say why.
He said the investigation would be a "long, tedious process" and that officers would likely remain in the neighborhood well into the night.
Karen and Larry Laws, who live next door to the home in a quiet suburban cul-de-sac, said an officer first arrived about 12:15 p.m. and departed.
The officer returned with four other officers, who surrounded the home and knocked multiple times over the course of about a half-hour, the Laws said.
"They were knocking on the door, giving them a chance to open," Karen Laws said. "They didn't just barge right in."
Smith said he did not know why neither the man nor the woman opened the door to police.
There was no indication that the woman was being held in the home against her will, Smith said, and the situation was not a "barricade."
Only one officer fired his weapon, Smith said. He did not say how many times the officer fired.
The man who was shot did not fire his rifle, he said.
The Laws said police brought a woman outside the home — whom they identified as the mother of the 21-year-old — and asked her whether there were other weapons in the home.
Smith said he could not confirm the relationship between the man and woman in the house, but that they were related.
The incident shocked longtime neighbors. Several said nothing similar had occurred there in decades.
Heidi Gross has lived in the neighborhood since 1986.
"A lot of times I leave my doors unlocked. I'm surrounded by neighbors. We all look out for each other," she said. "We're pretty safe as far as neighborhoods."
Scott Farrell said he moved to the neighborhood this week from Memphis, and was shocked at the welcome.
He said he was a police officer in Arkansas, and feels for everyone involved in the situation.
"I worked in law enforcement so I know how it goes, but it's bad. It's bad for the family, it's bad on the officer, it's bad on everyone involved," he said.
"Right here at the holiday, it's got to be bad. No matter the cause, it affects more than the person shot and the officer."
Baltimore Sun reporter Jacques Kelly contributed to this article.
twitter.com/rectorsun