Officer Fatally Shoots Waterman

A Maryland waterman was killed by a state natural resources officer yesterday morning in a shooting that police said was justified by self-defense.

Thomas S. Sherwood Jr., 49, of Bellevue was on a boat dock in Tar Creek, in Talbot County on Maryland's Eastern Shore, when he encountered the officer, whose name was not released by police. It was the first such fatal shooting by a Maryland Natural Resources Police officer in more than four decades, a police union official said.

Sgt. Kenneth B. Turner II, a police spokesman, said the officer was a four-year member of the force with more than 13 years of law enforcement experience. He was placed on administrative leave with pay while Natural Resources authorities and Maryland State Police investigate.

"Preliminary findings indicate the officer acted in self-defense," Turner said. "It's a very unfortunate incident, [but] these are few and far between."

Turner would not provide details.

Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association, said watermen from nearby Tilghman Island who called him said Sherwood was shot after allegedly threatening the officer with a tire iron. Simns said the watermen believed the officer was responding to a trespassing call. Turner would not confirm that account.

Simns said the watermen told him "everybody down there kind of knew [Sherwood]. He was kind of eccentric, [and] they didn't consider him dangerous."

"But the police didn't know him."

Capt. William Bates, a police union official, said the last time a Natural Resources officer fatally shot a person on duty was in 1959.

In that incident, Berkeley Muse, 31, of Oak Grove was killed when three Maryland fisheries inspectors, who suspected him of illegal oyster dredging in the Potomac River, opened fire on his boat while trying to intercept it. Another man on the boat was injured.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this article.