Two killed in US gun rampage
A man wearing body armour shot six people, killing two, in the US states of Maryland and Delaware today before police arrested him, authorities said.
Of the four wounded, at least two were listed as in a very serious condition.
Police said the suspect also hijacked a vehicle, shot and killed a dog, and rammed a sport utility vehicle into a house during the rampage.
The attacks started in Laurel, where three men were shot, and continued across the border in Maryland, where the suspect fled on foot before being caught. The other three people were shot in Salisbury, Maryland, one of whom died, said Delaware State Police Corporal Jeff Oldham.
Police said the suspect is in his late teens or early 20s. A witness said police told her the suspect was trying to shoot into an apartment in Laurel where his girlfriend lived when the crime spree began.
Two people were shot at the apartment building, and another at a nearby shopping centre.
“It was just poom, poom, poom, poom, you know. It just scared me so bad,” said resident Matilda Smith.
She saw a young man covered in blood fall off an air-conditioning unit he had been sitting on, about 20 feet from her doorstep. “To me, what I could see was nothing, but blood,” she said. “I stood there and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
At the shopping centre, witnesses said a man was shot on the side of the road, then staggered along the storefronts before collapsing. The local mayor said this victim was apparently shot while trying to hitch a ride from the suspect as he fled the scene.
In Salisbury, the gunman drove a sport utility vehicle into a house, then hijacked a car and was involved in an accident, police said. Maryland State Police said the suspect was wearing body armour and carrying a handgun when he was caught in Salisbury.
