D.C. Officer Fires at Would-Be Carjackers in Prince George's

A District police officer traded gunfire with would-be carjackers in Prince George's County Sunday in the second such incident in the county in less than a week, Prince George's police said.

The off-duty police officer involved in Sunday's incident in Capitol Heights was not hurt. It was not clear whether he wounded either of the two people who tried to take his car at gunpoint, police said. They were at large Sunday night.

Although police efforts to suppress carjackings have shown success in recent years, the two incidents -- Sunday and Wednesday -- appear to reflect the degree to which carjacking has been a significant problem in Prince George's. In 2005, carjackings occurred in the county at a rate of two a day. It has been reported that more carjackings occurred there in 2006 than in all other Maryland counties combined.

Carjackings have also plagued the District, and gunfire has erupted in both jurisdictions when robbers have apparently unwittingly targeted law enforcement officers.

In November, two Prince George's officers shot and killed a 19-year-old man suspected of trying to steal a vehicle from one of them.

In Sunday's incident, the D.C. officer, whose name was not released, had just parked his vehicle on Brooks Drive about 6:20 a.m. As he got out, he was approached by two people, county police said.

One showed a gun and demanded the officer's keys. The officer got his service weapon and fired, police said. As the two people ran, one fired back, police said.

The incident was similar to a confrontation Wednesday night in which an off-duty county police officer was shot by a man who approached him as he was getting out of his car in a parking lot on Jaywick Avenue in Fort Washington.

The officer, identified as Eric Horne, was hit in the hand. He returned fire, but it was not clear whether the gunman was hit.