Baltimore County Police Col. Andre Davis, left, and Police Chief Melissa Hyatt are shown at a news conference in Baltimore County on Monday, March 29, 2021. Investigators have “no idea” why a Maryland man fatally shot his parents at their home and gunned down two other people at a convenience store before setting fire to his apartment and killing himself, a police official said Monday. A gun that Joshua Green, 27, used in Sunday's deadly shooting spree was registered to him and had been legally purchased, according to Baltimore County Police Col. Andre Davis. (Lloyd/The Baltimore Sun via AP)

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD. — Investigators have “no idea” why a Maryland man fatally shot his parents at their home and gunned down two other people at a convenience store before setting fire to his apartment and killing himself, a police official said Monday.

A gun that Joshua Green, 27, used in Sunday’s deadly shooting spree was registered to him and had been legally purchased in 2020, according to Baltimore County Police Col. Andre Davis.

“As to why this occurred, we have no idea yet,” Davis said at a news conference. “Our homicide detectives are tirelessly investigating a motive, but it appears that the shooter acted alone.”

Police believe Green killed his parents — Douglas Green, 59, and Olivia Green, 63 — at their Baltimore County home before he drove over to a Royal Farms store in Essex just before 7 a.m. on Sunday.

Green blocked in another car in the store’s parking lot, got out and shot and killed Alpha Elizabeth, 63, while she sat in her vehicle, according to Davis. Green then entered the store and fatally shot a customer, 44-year-old Silvester Day Jr., near a cash register before wounding a store employee. Davis said the employee, a man, was in stable condition at a hospital on Monday.

After the shooting, police said, Green returned to his nearby home and set fire to his apartment before shooting himself. Police found the apartment engulfed in flames and Green dead in the parking lot with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Homicide detectives found the bodies of Green’s parents in their garage when they went to their home to notify them of their son’s death, according to Davis.

Davis said Green had “no criminal contacts with police” before the shootings.

Police Chief Melissa Hyatt said that there were “more questions than answers” about a “horrific and sickening event which changed the lives of many people.”

“For now, we know that four innocent people lost their lives and one person sustained serious injuries,” she said.

Hyatt said police have spoken to a relative of Green but she didn’t elaborate.

“When we are able to definitively have facts and information, we will relay that. We just want to make sure that we are putting out accurate information,” the chief said.

Green’s parents lived in an unincorporated part of Baltimore County called Baldwin. Daniel Brennaman, 73, a neighbor who lives two doors down from the couple’s home, said he noticed a police cruiser and saw a photographer out in front of the house while walking his dog on Sunday evening.

“A storm blew through here, and I thought it was a car accident around the corner,” he said. “I haven’t heard a thing.”

Brennaman said he has exchanged greetings and small talk with the couple but didn’t know them personally.

“I wave at him from time to time. He’s always working in his yard,” he said.

Royal Farms spokesperson Breahna Brown said Sunday that the company had no immediate comment on the shooting at its store.

ORIGINAL STORY

A man accused of shooting three people at a Maryland convenience store, killing two of them, also fatally shot his parents and set his apartment on fire before he shot and killed himself, police said.

Joshua Green, 27, was identified Sunday night as the suspect in the deadly shooting at a Royal Farms store in Essex, Baltimore County police said in a statement.

Police also believe Green shot and killed his parents who were found dead at their home in an unincorporated part of the county called Baldwin.

Detectives said Green left the convenience store and set his apartment on fire, according to the statement. He was later found dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It was unclear when his parents died but police said both appeared to have been shot.

Daniel Brennaman, 73, a neighbor who lives two doors down from the home where the bodies were found, said he noticed a police cruiser and saw a photographer out in front of the house when he was walking his dog on Sunday evening.

“A storm blew through here, and I thought it was a car accident around the corner,” he said. “I haven’t heard a thing.”

Brennaman said he has exchanged greetings and small talk with the husband and wife who live in that Manor Road home but couldn’t recall their names and didn’t know them personally.

“I wave at him from time to time. He’s always working in his yard,” he said.

Online property records show that the home where police found the parents’ bodies is owned by Olivia D. Green and Douglas J. Green.

Royal Farms spokesperson Breahna Brown said the company had no immediate comment on the shooting at its store.

The condition of the person who was wounded at the convenience store wasn’t released. Police said the person was recovering at a local hospital.

Police said detectives believe all three shootings are connected and they were not looking for any additional suspects.

More information was expected to be released at a news conference Monday morning.