A 53-year-old Silver Spring man was shot multiple times during an armed robbery in an incident that police say is extremely unusual for Bethesda.
Montgomery County Police spokesman Derek Baliles said the man was inside the parking garage of the Air Rights Building at the 7000 block of Wisconsin Avenue just after midnight Sunday when a man confronted him at his car. After grabbing the victim’s wallet, the robber reportedly shot the man numerous times with a small caliber handgun and ran off.
Initially, the victim’s injuries were thought to be life-threatening, but “we’re relieved that he’ll survive,” Baliles said Monday. Several cars in the same garage were also broken into around that time. Officials don’t know if the incidents are linked.
Police sources say armed robberies in and of themselves are not uncommon in Bethesda.
“We sometimes have street robberies, we sometimes have shootings, ” he said. “But the combination of this in a parking garage and the level of violence is troubling.”
