Police: Off-duty trooper working security at Maryland restaurant shot, killed

Police: Off-duty Md. trooper shot, killed

FORESTVILLE, Md. — Police were searching for a man who shot and killed an off-duty Maryland state trooper working security at a Prince George’s County restaurant early Friday.

Trooper Wesley Brown, 24, escorted a disorderly customer from an Applebee’s on Thursday evening and when he left the restaurant around 12:40 a.m. Friday, State Police Superintendent Col. Terrence Sheridan said that customer shot him.

Brown, who was wearing a jacket that clearly identified him as a police officer on the back, was talking on the phone in the parking lot of the restaurant and was shot without warning, Sheridan said.

Brown was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Brown’s death has devastated the trooper’s law enforcement and personal family and the community he protected, Sheridan said.

“These men and women put their lives on the line and when this happens it goes against our society, it goes against everything we stand for,” said Sheridan, who visited the scene with Gov. Martin O’Malley on Friday morning.

O’Malley said that for now, police must focus on finding the shooter.

“There’s no way to make sense of a murder like this of a dedicated 24-year-old trooper who was doing his job and out there on the streets for us,” O’Malley said.

Brown was assigned to the Forestville barracks and was recently engaged to be married, Sheridan said.

Police were searching the area for the gunman.