4 officers on leave after man shot, killed in Gaithersburg Friday night
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Montgomery County leaders shared new details Monday after officers shot and killed a man in front of a Gaithersburg McDonald’s Friday night.
Police identified the man killed as Ryan Leroux, 21, of Gaithersburg.
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No body camera footage was released. Montgomery Co. Executive Marc Elrich said that was at the request of the Howard County State’s Attorney, who is now investigating the incident and wants to first interview the four officers involved in the shooting.
Elrich said under Maryland law, officers have ten days to provide statements.
Police Chief Marcus Jones said police got a call around 9:15 p.m. Friday about a man who wouldn’t pay for his food or leave the drive-thru at the McDonald’s on 18273 Flower Hill Way.
Jones said due to other priority calls, it was close to 10:30 p.m when an officer responded. He said the officer saw a gun on the passenger seat of the car and ordered Leroux to get out.
Additional officers arrived, secured the area and evacuated the McDonald’s.
Jones said there’s no evidence Leroux shot at officers.
He said officers communicated with Leroux for 30 minutes and a sergeant was able to reach him on his cell phone.
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He says Leroux’s demeanor was "calm to some degree," although he did have alcohol in the car and continued to refuse to get out.
What remains unclear is what exactly happened In the moments before officers opened fire.
Brown did not speak to that and indicated that it may not be clear in the body camera footage.
He couldn’t confirm if there was an image of Leroux holding the gun which he described as a loaded Glock 27.
"(The gun) was visible to the officers when they went to remove Mr. Leroux from the vehicle to initiate CPR, so it was in his possession at that time," said Brown.
When asked if it was still in the passenger seat, he said the gun was in Leroux’s lap.
Elrich called what happened "tragic" and said he wanted to assure people that it would be fully investigated.
"The deeper question is—what did we do and could we have done anything differently that might have prevented this outcome," said Elrich.
FOX 5 was unsuccessful in reaching Leroux‘s family, but spoke to a woman at the press conference who says she’s a friend Leroux and he used to date her sister.
She said they broke up about a month ago and "his mind wasn’t really right because of it." She said she couldn’t imagine him pulling a gun on police.
Protesters outside the press conference with the Silver Spring Justice Coalition said they were told there was no space inside the press conference.
they said they were angry to see another Black man killed by police and they wanted to see body camera footage.
"We’re kind of try to be pushing for different ways to eliminate harm that police cause in the county, specifically to Black and Brown folks and those who are disadvantaged," said Bob Veiga, co-chair of Silver Spring Justice Coalition.