An off-duty Capitol Police officer shot and killed a man early Monday evening after the man produced a handgun during a confrontation that took place in an alley near Florida Avenue Northeast.

The officer was arriving home at about 6 p.m. when he saw the man tampering with a motorcycle parked in the alley, located on the 1200 block of Fifth Street, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. The officer then approached the man, identified as 19-year-old Maurice Hartzog, according to Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.

“Our off-duty officer identified himself as a police officer, and the suspect turned around and produced a handgun,” said Schneider, the department’s spokeswoman.

The officer then fired in order to protect himself, Schneider said.

A witness who heard the shots flagged down an MPD officer who was on patrol nearby, according to news reports. The MPD officer found both the Capitol Police officer and Hartzog, who was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Hartzog, who lived in Maryland, was rushed to a nearby MedStar Health facility, where he was pronounced dead at about 10 p.m., according to police.

The Capitol Police officer was uninjured. He has been placed on administrative leave while the Capitol and Metropolitan police departments conduct a joint investigation of the incident, Schneider said. She described that investigation as routine.

“We won’t identify [the officer] because in this case he was a witness as well,” Schneider said.

— Elizabeth Brotherton