A Maryland State Police trooper shot a 16-year-old boy dead after the teenager aimed what investigators later learned was a toy gun at the officer before pulling a knife on him, police said.
Police on Wednesday were investigating the shooting, which occurred a day earlier at about 1:30 p.m. in Leonardtown in southern Maryland.
“There are many questions we do not have the answers to at this point,” State Police Superintendent Woodrow Jones told a news conference on Tuesday.
The trooper, whose name was not immediately released, was responding to two 911 emergency calls about “a guy acting suspicious” and possibly armed with a gun in a residential neighborhood. He arrived to find the teen in a home’s driveway “in a shooting stance, pointing a gun at the trooper,” Jones said.
“The trooper fired at the male, wounding him,” Jones said.
The teen, who was identified as Peyton Ham, 16, and who lived a few houses away, then pulled a knife, Jones said.
