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A Baltimore County officer shot a 27-year-old man who was apparently reaching for a gun early Wednesday morning in Parkville, the county Police Department said in a statement.

The man, whose name has not been released, is in serious condition but is expected to survive, said Shawn Vinson, a police spokesman. The officer has not been identified.

The officer was called just before 4:30 a.m. for reports of a someone breaking into cars in the area of Hillendale and Northview roads.

County police said the officer saw a man attempting to hide, turning his back toward the officer. The officer then approached the man and called out to him, police said.

As the officer walked toward the man, police said, he turned around to face the officer and reached inside of the waistband of his pants.

Police said the officer yelled for the man to stop, but the man continued to reach, apparently for a gun, and the officer fired several shots.

The man was struck in the lower body and was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Police said a handgun was recovered at the scene.

The shooting, which remains under investigation, was the third by Baltimore County police officers this year.

Last month, two officers, identified as Corporal Gonazales of the Woodlawn precinct and Officer Pierce of the K-9 unit, shot three people in Woodlawn.

Under an agreement between the county and police, the first names of officers involved in shootings are not released.

Police said the officers were investigating a robbery at a Royal Farms and opened fire on a vehicle that accelerated toward them; three people inside the car were shot.

Rashad Daquan Opher of Windsor Mill, 20, died in that shooting. Police charged the other two, Askari Francisco Gomes, 17, and Jordan Markel Parrison, 20, both of Baltimore, with armed robbery, first-degree assault and related offenses.

In January, Officer Langley, assigned to the Parkville precinct, fatally shot 59-year-old Kerry Lee Coomer in Overlea. Police said Coomer was armed with a long gun and had threatened his family.

Last year, county police shot six people, two of them fatally.

jkanderson@baltsun.com

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