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More Information Released In Accidental Shooting Of Baltimore Officer

ODENTON, Md. (WJZ) -- There's new information about what went wrong during a drug raid in Anne Arundel County. The operation ended when a police officer was shot and rushed to Shock Trauma.

Mike Schuh explains how it happened.

Police made a huge drug arrest, injured one of their own and left a big mess inside the home of a woman caught unaware of what was happening right on her front porch.

Here, near Ft. Meade, so many neighbors work during the day that a retired woman in one house lets her friends send their packages to her door. That's just what happened right before the cops showed up Monday.

The homeowner says she didn't think twice, signed for a package, didn't look at it and left it on her stoop. Then, 10 minutes later, the police task force showed up with a search warrant.

Outside, a friend of the homeowner, 38-year-old Andre Jackson, was arrested as he collected the package containing 27 pounds of marijuana. He also had $245,000.

Officers also went inside to check for accomplices. They were hardly in the front door when there was an accident.

"There was an accidental weapons discharge from a Baltimore County officer on the task force. It struck a Baltimore City member of the task force in his arm," said Justin Mulcahy, Anne Arundel County Police spokesperson.

The detective who was shot started shooting.

"Believing they were coming under fire [he] also discharged his weapon several times," Mulcahy said.

The detective's bullets went through the wall: five of them. The back door sliding door was shot out, and so was the refrigerator.

"Why? It was empty," the homeowner said.

Empty, too, it seems are her hopes the police will pay for cleanup.

"They said because they arrest someone leaving my house," she said, "I'm stuck with the damage."

Tuesday, she learned the county might pay, but she has to file a formal claim.

"They can certainly pursue that claim through the county's risk management," Mulcahy said.

The city officer has been on the force for 16 years and is on medical leave recovering from that shot to his arm.

The Baltimore County narcotics officer who accidentally fired the first shot is a 26-year veteran and is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigations by the Anne Arundel and Baltimore County police departments.

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