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Former Morningside Police Chief David Allan Eichelberger Jr. was indicted Tuesday by a Maryland grand jury on charges of allegedly stealing a gun registered as police property and selling it from his car this summer.

The grand jury handed down five counts against Eichelberger, 30, of Accokeek. According to the indictment filed in Prince George's County Circuit Court, Eichelberger is accused of stealing a .40-caliber Glock model 27 handgun that was registered as property of the Morningside Police Department around July 1 and selling it from the trunk of his police cruiser for an undisclosed amount of money.

Morningside officials fired Eichelberger on Oct. 2, following the launch of an investigation by Maryland State Police into alleged illegal weapons sales. He had served the Morningside department since January and was promoted to the top post in August.

Eichelberger could not be reached for comment. State Police spokesman Greg Shipley declined to comment on the details of the investigation.

Morningside Vice Mayor James Ealey said he was not surprised to hear Eichelberger was charged. According to Ealey, Eichelberger admitted to the Morningside Town Council on the same day he was fired that he had taken a weapon from police storage.

"He told us that ... the weapon that he sold, he confiscated it from the evidence room," Ealey said.

Mayor Karen Rooker and Morningside Police Department officials declined to comment Tuesday, directing questions to Town Attorney Todd Pounds. A representative for the other three Town Council members, who did not disclose her name, also referred questions to Pounds.

"We're taking a position of letting the state's attorneys do their job," Pounds said. "We're going to be fully supportive of everything they do."

Pounds said that in light of the allegations, town officials will pay closer attention to the behavior of future police chiefs.

"This is a situation where the chief had the keys and unfortunately committed conduct that we were fortunate enough to find out about fairly quickly," he said.

Eichelberger's attorney, William C. Brennan of the Greenbelt-based firm Brennan, Sullivan and McKenna, was unavailable for comment by press time.

Assistant State's Attorney Jonathon Church will prosecute the case, according to Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey.

In a letter written to Pounds before Oct. 2, a local business owner, Charles Thompson of Force Clean Auto Service in Morningside, claimed Eichelberger sold him two weapons — a .40-caliber Glock and a shotgun — for $600. Thompson could not be reached for comment.

Eichelberger moved from the Rochester, N.Y., area to join the Morningside Police Department in January. He previously served as a Baltimore police officer from July 2005 to May 2007, according to the Baltimore Police Department.

The town has yet to replace Eichelberger, but Ealey said they are in the process of interviewing candidates.

E-mail Zoe Tillman at ztillman@gazette.net.