Gunman kills officer outside police station

A heavily armed teenager who had recently been arrested on carjacking charges was targeting police when he opened fire outside a suburban Washington, DC, police station, killing a detective, officials said today.

Two other officers were wounded in the attack, and one was in critical condition after undergoing surgery.

Investigators said Michael Kennedy, 18, was driving another stolen vehicle just before the attack yesterday afternoon in the car park of the Sully District Police Station.

The teen was crouched between two vehicles in the parking lot when he began firing, police said. He died in the exchange of gunfire, Officer Bud Walker said.

“All information points to the act of a lone, troubled individual – not a conspiracy, not the act of terrorism,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly said. “It would appear that the gunman specifically targeted our police.”

Kennedy had been arrested by Fairfax police on April 18 on a warrant issued in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he was charged in connection with a carjacking.

According to police reports, a 33-year-old man in that incident was forced out of his vehicle by a suspect who claimed to have a gun. Kennedy reportedly turned himself in to Fairfax police at one of their district stations and was held on a fugitive warrant charge. He was released after posting a bond, court records showed.

The dead detective, Vicky Armel, 40, was a nine-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police Department, Police Chief David Rohrer said.

He said the department, where Armel’s husband is also a detective, was in mourning.

Armel was the mother of two school-aged children and the first officer to die at the hands of an assailant in the department’s 66-year history.

The gunman was armed with a rifle and two handguns, said police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings.

She said the teenager had tried unsuccessfully to carjack a pickup truck before stealing a van and driving it to the station.

A 53-year-old officer who was shot was in critical condition after undergoing surgery. It was not clear whether the other wounded officer, a 28-year-old man, was shot or sustained his injuries from flying glass or a ricocheting bullet.

The shooting touched off hours of gridlock and confusion in the area as roads were blocked and nearby buildings, including a high school, were locked down as police sought other possible suspects before determining there was only one gunman.