Two University of Maryland students are dead following an apparent murder-suicide that started with suspicious fires and ended with gunshots. News4’s Pat Collins reports.
Prince George's County police have identified the suspected shooter in an apparent murder-suicide near the University of Maryland Tuesday as Dayvon Maurice Green, a 23-year-old graduate student at Maryland.
Green opened fire on his two housemates in an off-campus residence in College Park, killing one and wounding the other before turning the gun on himself, police said.
Undergraduate Stephen Alex Rane, 22, of Silver Spring, later died at a local hospital. The survivor, also an undergraduate, was in surgery Tuesday afternoon with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Green's family told police he suffered from an unspecified mental illness for which he had been prescribed medication for at least a year before the shooting.
Green, a graduate student in engineering, had completed an undergraduate degree at Morgan State University, police said.
An initial investigation revealed Green set several small fires in the basement and backyard of his rented house in the 8700 block of 36th Avenue near University Boulevard, police said. A roommate whose window faced the backyard woke to the flames and alerted a second roommate, and they confronted Green together.
The three agreed to try to put out the fires and walked toward the home to get water, police said.
“As they did, one of the students noticed the suspect reaching into his waistband for a gun,” said Julie Parker, Prince George’s County Police Director of Media Relations. “That student then began to run away from the home. As he did, he heard gunshots and then very quickly realized he had been hit.”
That student continued to a neighbor’s home for help. The other student collapsed outside the home after being struck several times.
Green then walked to the backyard and turned the gun on himself, Parker said.
"All I heard was about six to seven shots going, 'pop pop pop,' and then about 15 minutes later, we saw the cops," neighbor Jithin George told News4's Megan McGrath.
Police found a 9mm handgun next to Green’s body. They also discovered a bag of weapons including a baseball bat, a machete, a fully-loaded semi-automatic .22-caliber rifle and ammunition, police said.
Parker said the gun used in the slaying was purchased legally in the Baltimore County area in 2012. Green legally purchased the other gun Jan. 18 from a gun store in Silver Spring, police said.
Police had received two calls for service from the home in the past few months, Parker said. In October, police responded to a call for a burglary and found nothing was taken. Jan. 30, an apparent prank caller referred to hair on a couch before hanging up, Parker said. Police deemed response to that call wasn't necessary.
Police believe two other people live at the home but were not there at the time, Parker said.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
The university sent an alert to students around 1:15 a.m., warning them that a shooting had been reported off-campus.
“This is a great tragedy for the University of Maryland’s entire community, and our thoughts and our prayers are with the victims and their families,” University of Maryland President Dr. Wallace Loh said.
A memorial was held on campus at 7 p.m.
Stay with NBCWashington.com and News4 for more.
