A motorist was shot and killed in Prince George's County last night after his car collided with a vehicle stolen by a robber who had just invaded a nearby home and shot and wounded an occupant.
The fatal shooting on busy Riverdale Road was at least the 21st slaying this year in a county where the rising homicide rate has aroused widespread concern. It also reflected an acute problem with auto theft in the county.
The killing occurred about 7 p.m. near the intersection with Auburn Avenue. Police did not immediately identify the 41-year-old victim. The gunman fled after the attack and was at large last night.
The motorist was fatally shot less than 10 minutes after the gunman barged into a house on Carrollton Court, a cul-de-sac in New Carrollton, less than a mile from the site of the crash, according to Cpl. Joe Merkel, a Prince George's police spokesman.
Police gave this account:
The robber knocked at a house in the 6400 block of Carrollton Court. A woman answered the door, and the man apparently spoke briefly to her before she asked him to wait and went back inside.
After the woman walked away, the robber entered the house, where he was confronted by a 24-year-old man. The robber fired at least one shot, which grazed the man's head.
The victim fled to a neighboring house, and the gunman also left, driving off in an SUV parked outside that belonged to the occupants of the house.
The occupants of the Carrollton Court house were not identified last night. Neighbors reached by telephone declined to comment.
There was no immediate indication that the occupants of the house knew the gunman, but police said they were interviewing the 24-year-old in an effort to determine the circumstances of the incident.
When the gunman fled from Carrollton Court in the stolen SUV, police said, he may have been accompanied by as many as two other people. It was not clear where they were during the home invasion.
A few minutes after leaving Carrollton Court, police said, the stolen SUV collided with another SUV at Riverdale and Auburn.
The driver of the other vehicle was then shot in the chest. He was taken to Prince George's Hospital Center, where he later was pronounced dead.
