Crime & Safety

Updated: Gunman Tells Police to Kill Him, Suffers Fatal Gunshot Wound in Silver Spring

Police said the man called 911 and said he wanted to die at the hands of police.

Update, 1:59 p.m.: The gunman has been identified as Tracy Woodfork of Bladensburg, MD, according to police. 

Original story, Monday, Oct. 8 10:50 a.m.: Police early Monday shot a 22-year-old man in a confrontation outside a home in Silver Spring after the man called 911 and said he wanted police to kill him, a spokesperson for Montgomery County police said. The man later died at a hospital.

Officers responded to the 9500 block of Woodland Drive about 3:15 a.m. after a man called 911 and said he wanted to die, he had a gun and he wanted police to kill him, said Rebecca Innocenti, public information officer for the department.

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Workers at 911 were able to locate the man by using cell phone records and  contacting his family, Innocenti said.

Patrol officers found a man with a gun in a stairwell outside of the home in Silver Spring, police said. Innocenti said the man’s 23-year-old girlfriend was inside the home with three children.

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Police said the home belonged to a babysitting client of the man's girlfriend.

While police officers distracted the gunman outside, other officers took the woman and children out the front door, police said.

At 5:03 a.m. the man began to walk up from the stairwell with the firearm, Innocenti said, and there was an “encounter” between him and police in which the man was shot by one of the officers. Details were not available because the incident was under investigation, she said.

The man was taken to a hospital where he later died, Innocenti said.

Editor's note: This story was updated to include that the home was not that of the gunman.

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