Baltimore, Maryland: Cockeysville Homeowner Shoots Three Masked Men in Driveway, One Dead

A Cockeysville homeowner shot three masked men who approached him in his driveway on Halloween night, killing one of them and wounding the other two, Baltimore County police said.

What police say happened

Police received a call that brought officers to the 10000 block of Greenside Drive at about 10:40 p.m. on Friday, October 31, according to a Baltimore County Police Department news release reported by The Baltimore Banner. Officers met a resident who said he had been sitting in his driveway when three masked men, armed with a handgun, threatened him. The man told officers he pulled his own gun and fired at the men. The men fled, and the resident called 911.

Officers canvassed the area and found one of the men dead a short distance away. Police also recovered a loaded handgun that they believe was in the possession of the three men.

The man who died and the two who survived

Police identified the dead man as Amon Walker, 20. His name was released by Baltimore County police and was carried by both The Baltimore Banner and Baltimore County Breaking News, and it is the only name police have released in the case.

The two other men were later located after they sought treatment for gunshot wounds at local hospitals. Both are adult men, police said. Their names have not been released, and the resident who fired has not been named. Police have not said how many times any of the men were shot, and they have announced no charges in the case so far.

Baltimore County police said there is no active threat to the community. The department's Homicide Unit has taken over the investigation.

A Halloween street, then gunfire

The shooting happened on a street that had spent the evening handing out candy. Neighbor Kiran Thapa told The Banner that the corner house where the shooting happened was covered in Halloween decorations, drawing trick or treaters and people who stopped to take photos in front of the display. His wife spent most of the night on their front stoop giving candy to the hundreds of children who came through the neighborhood. She had just gone inside when she heard several pops. About ten minutes later, a friend leaving the house saw the street filled with police cars and officers.

Thapa said he first took the sound for noise from a neighbor's lawn decorations. By Sunday afternoon, The Banner reported, the street had largely returned to its usual calm, with children riding a scooter on the sidewalk and a neighbor mowing his lawn. A man who answered the door at the home where the shooting happened declined to comment.

What investigators have not said

Police have not said whether the encounter was random or targeted, what the three men wanted, or whether the resident will face any charge. Those questions sit with the homicide detectives now working the case. For Cockeysville, a Baltimore County community north of the city, the confirmed facts are the ones police put in their release: a man in his own driveway, three masked men with a handgun, shots fired at about 10:40 p.m., one man dead, two in hospitals, and a recovered loaded handgun.

No photo of Amon Walker, the resident, or the two surviving men is used in this report.