3 Shots and he's still alive!



Prince Georges County Cop Shoots Man, Kills Self


Police at the scene of the shooting on Opaleye Court in Waldorf where a PG cop filled her boyfriend with lead before taking her own life.  ST. MARY'S TODAY photos by Matthew Ivancie

                            
                                              P.G. Police Sgt. Tora Coates.  Photo courtesy of WUSA 9 News

WALDORF ---  Charles County Sheriff's Maj. Joe Montminy reports to ST. MARY'S TODAY that a shooting at the home of a Prince George's County police officer was domestic related and that the person who the officer attempted to kill with a gun was still alive but the officer took her own life.  
The shooting took place at 5802 Opaleye Court in the Dorchester neighborhood of St. Charles in Waldorf.  First reports were that the officer shot the man in the posterior, the hip and the shoulder. 
Maryland State Police Trooper 2 Med-evac helicopter flew the bullet-ridden man to a trauma unit.
 Police are on the scene with the body of the dead officer.  Police confirmed that the identity of the officer is Tora Coates, who lives at that address and is a PG officer.
Sgt. Tora Coates was the sister of former Calvert County Sheriff Vonzell Ward and had been a spokeswoman for PG police and most recently was assigned to the Internal Affairs Unit for professional responsibility. 
She was well regarded in police circles as being a top officer, according to FOP President Rodney Bartlett.


Former Calvert Sheriff Vonzell Ward  ST. MARY'S TODAY photo
Sheriff Ward ran for Calvert County Sheriff in 1994 as an independent and defeated incumbent Sheriff Bootsie Stinnett and the Republican candidate, retired PG. Police Lt. Col. Vince DuCellier.  Ward had been a Maryland State Trooper until being hit by a drunk driver and becoming disabled in the wreckage of the teen driver and his police car.
 After years of surgery, he went to work for Gov. William Donald Schaefer, becoming an assistant Secretary of State.
Ward won reelection over Stinnett in 1998 and stepped down in 2001 as the State Prosecutor conducted an investigation into alleged misconduct on the part of Ward in connection with the intimidation of a woman involved in a domestic dispute with her ex-boyfriend, a Calvert deputy. Up until his troubles with the State Prosecutor's investigation, Ward, an affable figure in local politics was considered unbeatable.