(LEONARDTOWN, MD) \u2013 Maryland State Police are continuing an investigation into a trooper-involved fatal shooting that occurred this afternoon in St. Mary\u2019s County.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The deceased individual is identified as Peyton Ham, 16, of Leonardtown, Md.\u00a0 He was transported from the scene to MedStar St. Mary\u2019s Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.<\/p>\n
The trooper involved is a uniformed patrol trooper assigned to the Leonardtown Barrack.\u00a0 He has been a Maryland state trooper for two years and seven months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the preliminary investigation, just before 1:30 p.m. today, two separate 911 calls were received at the Maryland State Police Leonardtown Barrack.\u00a0 The first call was from a male who gave a phone number instead of an address.\u00a0 He reported to the dispatcher that there was a guy acting suspicious who he thinks has a gun.\u00a0 The dispatcher asked for his location, but the call was disconnected.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later, a second 911 call is received from a male who gives a street address in the 23000-block of Hollywood Road, just down the street from the barrack.\u00a0 The caller said a guy was acting suspicious and he thinks he has a gun.\u00a0 He hangs up and does not give a name.<\/p>\n
The preliminary investigation indicates that within minutes, a uniformed Maryland state trooper arrived at the location and confronted a male in the driveway.\u00a0 The male, later identified as Peyton Ham, was armed with a gun and a knife.\u00a0 A witness told investigators they saw the individual in the driveway in what the witness described as a shooting stance, pointing a gun at the trooper.\u00a0 The trooper fired at Ham, wounding him.<\/p>\n
A second witness told investigators that after the trooper fired the first time, they saw the male pull out a knife and try to get up.\u00a0 The trooper ordered him to drop the knife, before he fired again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The trooper reported the shooting and called for EMS.\u00a0 Aid was rendered to Ham by troopers and sheriff\u2019s deputies until EMS arrived.<\/p>\n
The Maryland State Police Homicide Unit is on the scene and is conducting a criminal investigation.\u00a0 This is procedure in all trooper-involved shootings.\u00a0 Investigators are continuing to interview witnesses at this time.<\/p>\n
Maryland State Police crime scene technicians responded and are processing the scene.\u00a0 A gun was recovered at the scene.\u00a0 It has been determined to be an airsoft gun that is a close representation of an actual handgun.\u00a0 A knife was also recovered at the scene. \u00a0An autopsy of the deceased will be conducted at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The trooper involved was not injured.\u00a0 He has been placed on administrative leave pending the ongoing investigation. This is procedure in trooper-involved shootings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upon completion of the criminal investigation, it will be presented to the St. Mary\u2019s County State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office for review.\u00a0 The St. Mary\u2019s County deputy state\u2019s attorney responded to the scene and has been briefed by investigators<\/p>\n
In addition, the Maryland State Police Internal Affairs Division will be conducting an administrative investigation.\u00a0 This is also procedure.<\/p>\n
The investigation is continuing.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(LEONARDTOWN, MD) \u2013 Maryland State Police are continuing an investigation into a trooper-involved fatal shooting that occurred this afternoon in St. Mary\u2019s County.\u00a0 The deceased individual is identified as Peyton Ham, 16, of Leonardtown, Md.\u00a0 He was transported from the scene to MedStar St. Mary\u2019s Hospital where he was pronounced deceased. The trooper involved is Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barrackst-leonardtown","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21825,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21824\/revisions\/21825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}