1 Person Dead Following Police-Involved Shooting In Northeast Baltimore Saturday
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Baltimore Police Department is investigating a police-involved shooting that killed a person in Northeast Baltimore on Saturday afternoon, according to authorities.
Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said at a press conference that shortly after 3 p.m. officers tried to detain a person in a vehicle who they believed had a warrant for an armed robbery.
Officers got out of their vehicles and approached the person while they were inside of a car, he said. That person, who Harrison referred to as a male, got out of his car, too, only to return to the driver's seat. He then tried to flee from police in a Honda Accord before they shot him in the 3200 block of Hillen Road, Harrison said.
Prior to the shooting, the two officers attempted to open the driver and passenger side doors with no success, according to authorities.
"What we saw on bodycam video just a few minutes ago is that there were two officers one on each side one at the [driver's side] door and passenger door, and one of our officers was approaching the front of the vehicle," Harrison said. "The driver accelerated toward the officer who was in front of the vehicle, striking the officer as the officer was firing into the vehicle."
That officer fired his weapon prior to being struck by the car, Harrison said.
Police body camera video shows that there was a second officer running on the sidewalk who fired his weapon into the vehicle too, Harrison said.
"The driver of the vehicle drove only a few feet forward, came to a stop, and willingly got out of the vehicle and surrendered to the police where he was immediately arrested," he said.
That person was taken to a local hospital where they died of their injuries, according to authorities.
Harrison declined to provide the age of the suspect who had been shot. He said police had some idea of his identity based on information gleaned from the license plate on the car but that person's family had yet to be notified that they had died.
Police union president Mike Mancuso has gone to the homicide unit at police headquarters to offer his support to officers, union officials announced on Twitter.
No officers were injured during the shooting, according to union officials.
The police department had extra officers in Northeast Baltimore today specifically to address some of the armed robberies and carjackings that had been occurring in the area, Harrison said. Several of those officers work for what is known as the Metro Mobile Unit—a discretionary unit that can go anywhere in the city to help bolster police coverage in a specific area, he said.
Those officers were in the neighborhood doing what they had been asked to do, Mayor Brandon Scott said.
"Our officers were in this neighborhood today because of the armed robberies and carjackings that have been here over a period of time—where women and children, school children, have been robbed or carjacked," he said. "That's why they were here."
Renee Joy, the deputy chief of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General's Independent Investigation Division, also attended the press conference. Her office looks into all police-involved fatalities in Maryland and will play launch an independent investigation into the shooting.
Neighborhood residents recalled hearing the shooting. A woman known as Janae who lives next to the spot where police fired their weapons described how she only wanted to protect her children.
"What drew me was just the blood that was out there and just trying to make sure that my kids weren't really looking too much out the window," Janae said.
