Harford County's top prosecutor said his office will wait until early next week to determine whether to file charges against a Fallston gun shop employee in the fatal shooting Thursday of an armed 83-year-old customer.

"We're going to wait until we get more information from the medical examiner's office and information the state police are still trying to follow up," State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly said yesterday after meeting with Detective Sgt. Doug Zeller, lead investigator in the case for Maryland State Police.

Milton Caplan was shot about 5:15 p.m. Thursday at Fallston Gun and Pawn Shop in the 2800 block of Belair Road after he and the employee argued. Caplan fired a gun at the employee, hitting a nearby television set, and was leaving the store when the employee fired back four times, missing twice but hitting Caplan in the upper torso, Zeller said.

The argument was over ammunition, Zeller said, but he declined to elaborate, saying it was a key part of the investigation. The identity of the employee who shot Caplan will not be released until prosecutors decide whether to file charges, he said.

Caplan lived with his daughter and son-in-law, Janet and Edward J. Carey III, in the 800 block of Hayden Way in Bel Air, a neighborhood of neatly landscaped two-story homes.

Family members who gathered at the home yesterday declined to talk about Caplan, but neighbors remembered the 5-foot-7-inch former cabdriver as a man who always wore his favorite dark cabbie's cap and went for drives in his late-model Mercury Grand Marquis. Several weeks ago, he helped his family put on a yard sale.

In 1973, Caplan won $1 million in the Maryland State Lottery.

Steven Sauer, who said the family moved in next door five or six years ago, remembered Caplan as "a pleasant old man" who liked to open the garage door and sit inside, speaking to neighbors as they passed. He also enjoyed playing with Sauer's dog, Ellie, and saved treats for her.

"He was feisty, that's for sure," Sauer said. He recalled stories Caplan told heatedly about trying to get his car repaired properly. "He was rather colorful in telling you. I could see where he could get in an argument, but to get to the point where they were shooting at each other? I don't see that."

He said he had no indication that Caplan owned guns or was interested in them.

Another neighbor, Bill Henciak, said he didn't know Caplan well, but "it's a shock. You see a gentleman like that, an older fellow -- you don't expect this.

"I don't know what happened," he said. "What was on his mind?"

When asked yesterday whether Caplan had been a regular customer at Fallston Gun and Pawn Shop, an employee who would not give his name said, "Never seen him before in my life. Other than that, I have nothing to say."

Robert Scheuerman, who with his wife, Dawn, operated the gun and pawn shop until January, said yesterday that he did not think Caplan had been in the store previously, adding, "I don't think we should talk about anything just yet."

Robert Scheuerman and his two brothers operate a trio of businesses in the 2800 block of Belair Road: Fast Eddie's pit beef stand, A-1 Safe Co. and the gun shop.

Jimmy White, spokesman for the Maryland Lottery, confirmed yesterday that Caplan, who lived in Baltimore at the time, won $1 million in the state lottery Dec. 18, 1973. Caplan was the third $1 million winner in state lottery history.

Born and raised in West Baltimore, Caplan was 55 when he won the lottery. At the time, he was working as an airport bus driver and as a courier for Pur-O-Lator Co. and made $125 a week.

"I'm going to spend it all on the kids," the widower and father of three told The Evening Sun the night he won the lottery. "They can do anything they want."

Caplan described himself as a gambler by nature. He played in a weekly $2 poker game and bet on the horses six times a week, but told the newspaper, "I don't think I'll blow all this there."

He went back to work three to four days a week as a courier after winning and said his life was virtually unchanged.

"No one's hounded me. They don't know where I am," he told reporters.

Sun researcher Jean Packard and staff writer Dennis O'Brien contributed to this article.