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Recently Released 911 Calls Highlight 2018 Brookeville Tragedy

BROOKEVILLE, Md. (WJZ) — A woman escaped from her husband and ran to a neighbor's house for protection but the good samaritans ended up becoming victims of a brutal crime themselves.

The chilling story happened in May 2018, almost a year ago. A well-to-do Montgomery County neighborhood became a massive crime scene.

"I'm calling from Brookeville," one caller said to a 911 dispatcher. "We have someone who ran into our house saying her husband is trying to kill her. We just heard gunshots outside the house."

3 Victims Of Shooting At Maryland Home Identified

The caller was trying to protect a neighbor, whose husband, 41-year-old Christopher Snyder, held her hostage for days in their Brookeville home.

She had finally escaped but the terror was just beginning.

"My husband has a gun trying to kill me," said Snyder's wife.

The calls for help flooded 911. Including contractors, working on the very house that she had run from.

"We were working there, we were building a deck." one of the contractors said to 911. "This lady ran over and said her husband is trying to kill her."

But before police arrived, an enraged Snyder had burst into the neighbors' home where his wife was hiding and shot three people, killing them.

One of the homeowners pulled up seconds later.

"I was at the store and I was coming home from work,"  the homeowner said in the 911 call.  "We had some friends from South Dakota that just got here today and I saw my neighbor running out of my front door with an assault rifle of some sort. I don't know anything about rifles but it was an assault rifle of some sort and went right over to his house. His car is in my driveway."

The wife and another woman escaped that day.

"I sent the young lady that was hiding from him out the back," the homeowner told 911. "Told her to run and she ran."

But homeowner 66-year-old Mary Olson, 54-year-old Craig Shotwell, an Owings Mills contractor, and 70-year-old Danny Murphy, who had been visiting from out of town, all died.

Murphy's widow was in the house and was shocked that her husband was gone.

"Please hurry, please hurry," she pleaded to 911. "I can't believe this. We are on vacation from South Dakota. We just arrived here today."

After barricading himself inside of his house for hours, police said that Snyder shot and killed himself.

At the time, Montgomery County Police said that they had known of Snyder but didn't specify how.

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