A Maryland software developer was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from outside the house and shot him dead, according to his family.
The Montgomery County Police Department said in a news release Friday that Duncan Socrates Lemp, 21, “confronted” police who were executing a “high risk” search warrant at the Potomac home early Thursday. They said a tactical unit member fatally shot Lemp around 4:30 a.m.
According to police, the officers were “following up on a complaint from the public that Lemp, though prohibited, was in possession of firearms.”
However, Rene Sandler, an attorney for Lemp’s family, said an eyewitness gave a “completely contrary” account of the shooting. She said police have “absolutely no justification” for shooting Lemp as far as she can tell.
“There is no warrant or other justification that would ever allow for that unless there is an imminent threat, which there was not,” she told The Associated Press.
Duncan Lemp and his girlfriend were shot without warning, the family says
Sandler said Lemp’s family believes the officers opened fire with shotguns, including through Lemp’s bedroom window, while he and his girlfriend were sleeping. Nobody in the home, which Lemp shared with his parents and 19-year-old brother, heard any warnings or commands beforehand, she said.
Lemp’s girlfriend was also wounded in the shooting. Detectives later recovered three rifles and two handguns from the house, police said.
A police spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment by The AP or Pluralist. Officers are not required to alert targets of “no-knock warrants,” which judges issue to protect police or evidence.
In a statement released Friday by their lawyers, Lemp’s family said the warrant that police obtained to search the home makes no mention of any “imminent threat” to law enforcement or the public.
“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...
