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BRANDYWINE, Md. (AP) — An off-duty police officer who answered a neighbor's request for help in a domestic dispute was shot and killed Wednesday in Maryland, officials said.
The suspect in the officer's shooting was later shot and killed by police after a chase.
Prince George's County police Chief Hank Stawinski said Officer Mujahid Ramzziddin was confronted by a man with a shotgun when he left his home in suburban Maryland to help a woman who lived a few doors away and knew Ramzziddin was a police officer.
"He stood his ground," Stawinski said at a press conference. "He saved her life by giving his own."
The man who shot Ramzziddin, identified by police as Glenn Tyndell, 37 of Brandywine, then fled the scene in a vehicle. Stawinski said the chase carried briefly into neighboring Charles County, and ended when the suspect was shot and killed by two Prince George's County officers.
State Route 210, a major highway in southern Maryland connecting Prince George's and Charles counties, was closed for several hours Wednesday near the scene of where the suspect was shot and killed, several miles (kilometers) from where Ramzziddin was shot.
Stawinski said the initial shooting occurred about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Brandywine area, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of the nation's capital.
Ramzziddin, a married father of four, had been with the department for 13 years, and in 2006 received a Valor Award from the department, Stawinski said.
"Today was not the first time he demonstrated his heroism," Stawinski said.
The man who shot Ramzziddin had a history of domestic incidents, Stawinski said. Police later said he had three open warrants for assault, and court records list multiple civil and criminal complaints against him dating back to 2010. Many of them were ultimately dismissed.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is conducting its own investigation, but Stawinski said he has reason to believe that those domestic incidents should have barred the suspect from legally owning a firearm.
Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker said his sadness over Ramzziddin's death is mixed with pride for his willingness to help a member of the community.
"He didn't have to answer the door," Baker said. "He didn't have to walk out that door."
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