WATCH: (Scroll Down For Video) One firefighter was shot and killed and a second was critically wounded Friday evening when they went to a house in Prince George’s County to answer a medical call, authorities said.
The firefighters were shot about 7:30 p.m. at the door of a house in the 5000 block of Sharon Road, in the Temple Hills-Camp Springs area, as they were trying to get inside, county officials said.
The slain firefighter was identified as John Ulmschneider, 39. Authorities said he had been in the department for 13 years. He was married and a father, officials said.
He died at the Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton. Top county officials gathered there late Friday night to express their sorrow.
The name of the second firefighter could not be immediately learned. He was described as a member of the Morningside Volunteer Fire Department. He was reported in surgery late last night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
A third person, a relative of the occupant of the house, was also hit, suffering a wound that was not life-threatening, authorities said. It was that person who had apparently become concerned about the welfare of the 61-year-old man and summoned help.
Authorities said one person, apparently the occupant, was taken into custody.
Even in the most crime-ridden neighborhoods, it is unusual for firefighters to be shot. Mark E. Brady, the department spokesman, said the entire department was in shock.
According to authorities, the firefighters first knocked on the door of the house, but when they got no answer, they decided to enter.
As they tried to do so, shots were fired and they were hit, officials said.
After authorities finally entered, officials said, gunfire stopped and the occupant of the house was taken into custody.
The county’s state’s attorney, Angela Alsobrooks, was at a news conference at which the death was announced. “We will apply the law to the facts,” she said.
The site of the shootings is about two miles west of Joint Base Andrews, and southwest of the Capital Beltway and Branch Avenue.
