A 19-year-old man shot and killed himself last night shortly after he fired a handgun at police officers responding to a report of an armed man in an Annapolis apartment complex, city police said.

Capt. Zora Lykken of the Annapolis Police Department said Terico Wells, who had no fixed address, fired a handgun several times outside an apartment in the first block of Marc's Court in the Bayridge Gardens Apartments shortly after police officers arrived about 5: 30 p.m. The shots missed the officers but hit a police car.

Lykken said Wells ran into an apartment hallway when an officer returned fire without hitting him.

Moments later, Wells came out, knelt on the ground in front of the apartment building and shot himself in the head.

Lykken said Wells was being investigated in an earlier assault with intent to murder.

He said it was not immediately known whether that investigation was the reason Wells shot at police and then killed himself.

Pub Date: 8/24/98