UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND STUDENT SHOOTS TWO OF HIS HOUSEMATES WITH AN UZI KILLING ONE OF THEM

A University of Maryland graduate student shot two housemates, one fatally, then turned the gun on himself in an apparent ambush at their College Park home early Tuesday, police said.

Law enforcement authorities said Dayvon M. Green, 23, used a handgun in the shootings but was also armed with an Uzi submachine gun, a machete and a baseball bat, which he was carrying in a long shoulder pack.

Officials said detectives believe Green could have inflicted far more serious harm with the high-powered weapon had he chosen to do so.

Killed in the incident was Stephen Alex Rane, 22, an undergraduate from Silver Spring. Police declined to identify the second victim, also a 22-year-old undergraduate who is expected to survive.

Green, an engineering student who once interned at NASA, legally purchased the handgun in Maryland last year, said Julie Parker, spokeswoman for Prince George’s County Police.

Parker said family members told police that Green had suffered from a mental illness for about a year and had been taking medication. Parker did not identify either the condition or the drug.

The deadly incident began about 1 a.m. Tuesday outside a home in the 8700 block of 36th Avenue, a dead-end street of modest split-levels, most of them rented by students, about a block from campus.

Prince George’s County police said investigators believe Green lit fires in the basement of the house and outside for reasons that were not made clear but possibly to draw his roommates out into an ambush.

His two housemates were awakened to the smell of smoke and went outside to investigate.

Green accompanied them as if to help put out the fires.

But the roommates quickly realized he was wearing a gun in a holster at his waist, which he drew and began firing, Parker said.

Green shot Rane and then shot the surviving victim as he ran off. Green then went behind the house and turned the gun on himself, Parker said.

“We are all just devastated by it,” said William E. Kirwan, Chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

“Hopefully we can learn from it so we can do everything we can do to avoid something like this in the future.”

Authorities said Green was a full-time graduate student who had done undergraduate work at Morgan State University.

One law enforcement official said detectives had not found any suicide note or any evidence suggesting he had planned a more extensive rampage.

Police are working to determine whether Green obtained the uzi legally and whether he underwent background checks.

“The University of Maryland community awoke this morning to heartbreak,” university President Wallace Loh said in a statement.

“We are all shocked and saddened by this morning’s tragic events. We extend our deepest sympathies and prayers to the families and friends of the victims.”

Loh said the campus counseling center and places of worship would be open for anyone in need of support.

The Student Government Association announced that a vigil would take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Memorial Chapel.