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A 19-year-old Silver Spring man was shot and killed early Sunday morning in a wealthy Howard County neighborhood after he attended a Halloween party that ended in gunshots. Police have made two arrests in the shooting.

At around 1:15 a.m. Sunday, numerous partygoers at a home in the 11500 block of Manorstone Lane in Columbia called Howard County Police reporting several gunshots, according to a news release from the police department. More than 100 people were at the home, which was being rented out for a party. When police arrived, they found Aaron Thomas Brice, 19, of Silver Spring, dead in the driveway.

Another man, Nathaniel Quick, 22, of Columbia, was found in the basement with a gunshot wound. Quick was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was listed in critical condition and may be paralyzed, the release said.

Devin O'Brian Dixon, 22, of 8014 Paul Martin Drive in Elkridge, was arrested and has been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. He is believed to be the shooter, the release said. Dean Schroyer, 21, of the same Elkridge address as Dixon, was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact for first-degree murder and is believed to be the driver of the getaway car, the release said.

Police say the shooting resulted from an altercation, but they don't know what it was about. Police believe neither Brice nor Quick were intended targets of the shooters, Howard County Police Chief William J. McMahon said at a press conference in Ellicott City Monday.

"We know that there was a number of altercations at the house," McMahon said. He said while Dixon and Schroyer were leaving the house, they fired back into it, striking Brice and Quick inside, citing evidence that some shots went through a window.

A total of 21 bullet casings have been recovered by police as of Monday, McMahon said. He does not believe there was more than one shooter.

During a search of Dixon and Schroyer's home, a handgun police believe may have been used in the shooting was seized, as well as three pounds of marijuana, the release said. Schroyer will also be charged with drug possession.

Dixon is being held at the Howard County Detention Center without bond. Schroyer is being held on a $50,000 bond.

Friends and family who knew Brice during his short life say he was an outgoing young man always smiling and joking but simply in the wrong place at the wrong time the night of his death.

His aunt, Veda Russ, of Silver Spring, remembers Brice as a caring boy who was preparing to study criminal justice at Montgomery College in the spring.

"He was quiet, laid-back, always smiling, never loud, never boisterous, never disrespectful," Russ said in a phone interview Monday from Brice's White Oak home.

Brice worked as a cashier at a Giant grocery store and this past summer as a counselor at a youth summer camp, Russ said.

Russ said she spent Saturday at the homecoming celebration of Virginia State University and had invited Brice's father, Anthony Brice, to come along and bring Aaron Brice and some of his friends. But Aaron Brice declined the invitation because he didn't want to call out of work that day and instead attended the party later that evening, Russ said.

Brice had no prior criminal convictions and in high school completed more than 300 hours of community service at a nursing home, Russ said. In June he graduated from James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, where school officials say he was well-liked.

A group honoring Brice on the social networking Web site Facebook — one of the sites that police believe helped spread word about the Halloween party — has more than 1,500 members and hundreds of messages from friends who are shocked by the loss.

Brice's school guidance counselor, Christina Gelb, described Brice as "a typical teenager" who was bouncing with energy and could always be seen in the hallways surrounded by friends. During class, if he took a trip to the bathroom, he'd usually make a detour to her office or another teacher's to say hi, she said.

"He would talk to everybody," she said. "A lot of teachers worked intimately with him."

School was closed Monday for a staff holiday, but counselors will be available Tuesday for any student who needs support dealing with the tragic death, said Blake's principal, Carole Goodman.

At Monday's news conference, McMahon addressed the incident as well as several issues surrounding the house where the shooting occurred. The property on Manorstone Lane was rented out for the Halloween party and has been rented out for parties before, McMahon said. But police are not sure whether or not such uses violate area housing codes, he said.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said he and his staff would investigate every aspect of the property and the property owners' history. Any consequences facing the registered property owners rely on several factors, including whether there was a cover charge at the party as police and Ulman's office believes.

"The fact that they would have these parties in this house in a residential neighborhood is unacceptable," Ulman said in a phone interview Tuesday. "You cannot run a business out of your home. It's one thing to have a party; everybody can have friends over, but you cannot charge admission, and that seems to be what happened [in this case]."

The homicide is just the second of the year in Howard County, after an 87-year-old man was charged with killing a 91-year-old man in an assisted-living facility in Columbia in August.

Brice's death comes exactly one year to the day after 14-year-old Silver Spring high school student Tai Lam was shot and killed after an altercation on a county bus traveling home from a night spent with his friends in downtown Silver Spring.

The Brice family is arranging funeral plans for next week at the Washington, D.C., church they attended, the Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church.

Defense attorneys had not yet been listed in online court records for Dixon or Schroyer as of Monday afternoon.