Union Says Accused Baltimore School Shooter Removed From Campus Multiple Times Before Opening Fire
BALTIMORE (WJZ) —Police say the man accused of shooting a staff member inside a West Baltimore high school last week was angry because his sister had been disciplined.
According to charging documents, the victim—a special education assistant—struggled with 25-year-old Neil Davis just inside Frederick Douglass High School and tried to get the gun away from Davis after he was shot.
Police say Davis was prohibited from possessing a weapon because of his criminal past.
Sgt. Clyde Boatwright, who heads the union representing school police officers, told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren that Davis had prior run-ins with the school resource officer in recent months and had to be removed from campus.
"Our unarmed police officer has put this person out of the building on more than one occasion," Boatwright said. "He was probably armed during those two encounters."
Boatwright said the union has renewed its call that officers should be armed inside buildings on campus during the school day, something the city's school board has unanimously rejected.
"You're paying people to be police officers, but you won't give them all of the tools they need to be police officers," he said. "It's bad policy."
The board is scheduled to take up the issue again at a meeting Tuesday night.
Under the current policy, school police officers can only be armed before or after school hours. Their weapons are stored in a safe during the school day.
Jimmy Gittings, president of the union representing school administrators, also supports arming school police officers.
"Our schools used to be a safe haven. They are no longer," Gittings said. "We have students, staff, and administrators who are verbally abused. They've been physically abused. Now, they're being shot. This has to stop. Something drastic has to be done."
At the time of Friday's shooting, the unarmed school resource officer had called two supervisors to campus.
Supervisors can be armed.
They worked together to take Davis into custody and no students were injured.
"It's going to take the death of a student, administrator, or a teacher for people to open their eyes and realize how dangerous our schools have become," Gittings said.
Police recovered five shell casings from Friday's shooting along with a handgun.
They say ballistics from the weapon used In the school shooting link Davis to the November 2018 murder of Darelle Yancey in the 4600 block of York Road and have charged him in that killing.
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