Montgomery County Police on Tuesday afternoon released additional details on the police-involved fatal shooting of a Potomac man March 12.
According to MCPD, the man whose home police were searching refused to show his hands and get on the ground but instead headed to another room inside the residence when the shooting occurred.
Police identified the man as Duncan Socrates Lemp, 21, of the 12200 block of St. James Road in Potomac.
The officer from the Tactical Unit who apparently shot Lemp was not named. He was placed on administrative leave, as is normal procedure.
According to police, they entered Lemp’s residence on March 12 equipped with a “high-risk search warrant.”
Police said they had received an anonymous tip at the beginning of the year concerning Lemp and his possession of firearms. Because of his past criminal history as a juvenile, Lemp legally was prohibited from possessing or buying guns in Maryland until he turned 30.
Police entered the residence with the special search warrant, which permitted them not to have to knock before going in.
Once inside around 4:30 a.m., the officers told everyone in the residence to show their hands and get on the ground, according to the news release from MCPD.
“Lemp refused to comply with the officer’s commands and proceeded towards the interior bedroom door where other officers were located,” according to MCPD.
There, police saw Lemp, who had a rifle, the statement noted.
When police searched the residence, they discovered what they called a booby trap affixed to the inside of the exterior door leading to Lemp’s bedroom. Montgomery County Fire Marshals were called in to deactivate the device.
“The device was designed as a ‘booby trap’ intended to detonate a shotgun shell at the direction of anyone entering through the exterior door into Lemp’s bedroom,” according to the news release.
Police said they were warned of the device by another occupant.
Other occupants gave statements to the police acknowledging that they knew about the device on the door. Those occupants also told police that Lemp slept with a rifle.
Previously, Lemp’s attorneys had said Lemp and his girlfriend were asleep at the time of the shooting.
Attorneys Rene Sandler and Jonathan Fellner said the police “opened fire on a family while they were sleeping.”
Further, the attorneys said, “Any attempt by the police to shift responsibility onto Duncan or his family who were sleeping when the police fired shots into their home is not supported by the facts.”
The attorneys also said the other person in the room was Lemp’s girlfriend, who they did not name.
But police said an occupant in the room “was out of the bed and standing directly in front of the interior bedroom door at the time the officers made entry into the bedroom.”
At the end of the search, police collected three rifles, two handguns and other “items of evidentiary value.”
Detectives from the Major Crimes Division are investigating the incident.
The Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office will review the officer-involved shooting at the conclusion of the investigation.
