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A Baltimore police officer attempts to secure a crime scene with tape at the scene of a shooting at the intersection of West North and Druid Hill avenues in West Baltimore, May 30, 2015. Reuters

A sheriff’s deputy was hospitalized in critical condition Thursday and another man is dead in the aftermath of a shooting that occurred as the deputy helped an abused woman gather her possessions from her boyfriend's apartment, reports said.

Deputy Warren Scott Hogan, 32, was shot by the alleged abuser while helping the victim in Chestertown, Maryland, roughly 75 miles northeast of Baltimore.

Hogan responded by firing back and killing James L. Rich II, 52, who owned the apartment, Maryland State Police Public Information Officer Greg Shipley said.

The woman who reported the violence had been living with Rich, reports said Thursday. She had sent a text message to her father around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday describing a physical altercation with Rich and told him to call police.

Deputies were dispatched to Rich’s apartment after the father called 911 Wednesday night but found no one there. Deputies later learned the victim had been picked up by her father and taken to the police station. The victim told police about the violent incident and asked deputies to escort her back to the apartment so she could get some clothes to spend the night elsewhere.

Deputies accompanied the victim and her parents to the apartment just after midnight, and found Rich with his teenage son. On seeing the police, Rich walked into the apartment's back room, grabbed his shotgun, and fired a round at the deputies, with some of the pellets striking Hogan at close range.

Hogan reportedly then returned fire, killing Rich.

Hogan was taken into surgery at a local hospital early Thursday with “a devastating injury,” Thomas M. Scalea, head of the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, told the Washington Post.

The incident is currently under review. Hogan was wearing a body camera, Shipley said.

Police previously had been called to Rich’s apartment in July 2015 over alleged domestic abuse.

Baltimore witnessed a record number of homicides in 2015 with 344. And 2016 was the second bloodiest year in Baltimore history, seeing 310 so far.

Sixty-four law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in the U.S. in 2016, CNN reported Dec. 13.

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