Another police shooting; double standard?
A shooting by a Baltimore police officer early Wednesday brings the total this year to 21, the same as in 2008. Seven of the people shot, including the latest man, died, which is six fewer than last year.
We're still dealing with a policy in which city police withhold names of officers who fire their weapons, but there are exceptions. Officials released the name of one officer involved in a recent shooting of a robbery suspect in Hampden, calling him a hero, while withholding the name of two officers who shot a man who they said pointed a gun at them.
Apparently they're not heroes. Seems very odd.
I wonder how that makes the officers feel who shot and killed 20-year-old Byron Ranard Matthews in the 2300 block of West Baltimore St. early Wednesday. A sergeant and an officer shot the man after police said he ran during a drug investigation. Police said Ranard circled a block and pulled a .38 caliber revolver and pointed it at the officers.
Their names were withheld. But a police spokesman said Officer Adam Braskich was the off-duty cop who shot and critically wouunded a man who police said was holding up a liquor store on Falls Road in Hampden on Friday night.
For stopping the robbery, he was named a "hero."
This policy is supposedly still being reviewed. Below is a copy of a news release sent out recently by the Maryland State Police on a police involved shooting by a trooper. The shooting occurred about 6:15 p.m. and this detailed account, which includes the name of the trooper who fired, came out the same night:
TROOPER SHOOTS MAN CLAIMING TO BE ARMED AND THROWING ROCKS AT MOTORISTS AND TROOPERS
(North East, MD) – A man claiming to be armed with a gun and throwing large rocks at passing cars and ultimately troopers who confronted him on Rt. 40 in Cecil County tonight is hospitalized in stable condition after he was shot by a state trooper during the confrontation.
The suspect is identified as Clyde S. Patterson III, 50, who is currently a voluntary resident at the Perry Point Medical Center, a Veteran’s Administration facility in Perry Point, Md. Patterson is listed in serious, but stable condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he is under guard by state troopers.
At 6:14 p.m. today, the Maryland State Police North East Barracks received simultaneous 9-1-1 calls from three motorists on Rt. 40 west of Red Toad Road, who all said their cars had been hit by large rocks thrown by a man on the roadside. One of the motorists stopped to confront the man and said the suspect told him he had a gun and then pulled the gun from his waistband.
Trooper First Class James L. Parker, 28, was the first to arrive on the scene where the motorists were parked. After receiving a description of the suspect, TFC Parker told his backup trooper that the suspect may be armed and directed him to check the eastbound lanes of Rt. 40.
The backup trooper, TFC Brad Pennington, stopped his patrol car near the suspect, whom he saw walking on eastbound Rt. 40, with one hand in his pocket and carrying an American flag in the other. As soon as the suspect saw the trooper, he ran to the roadside, picked up a large rock, and threw it at the trooper, but missed him and put his hand back in his pocket. The rock rolled under the patrol car.
TFC Pennington drew his weapon and ordered the suspect to show his hand and surrender. The suspect repeatedly refused, saying that was not going to happen and that he was going to meet “J.C.”
TFC Parker pulled his patrol car up on the scene with the suspect. The suspect picked up another rock and threw it at the trooper as he was getting out of his car. The rock broke the driver’s side window, but did not injure the trooper.
The suspect continued to return his free hand to his pocket. As the troopers continued to order the suspect to surrender, he continued to refuse, saying he was going to see “J.C.” and began walking up Rt. 40. By this time, responding police units had stopped traffic on both east and westbound Rt. 40.
The suspect eventually crossed the grass median. He walked toward several Cecil County Sheriff’s Office deputies and troopers who were positioned in the westbound lanes of Rt. 40.
In the interim, personnel at the North East Barracks requested a North East Police Department officer who is equipped with a less lethal weapon, a Taser, to respond to the scene. The officer did so and joined the group of backup officers on westbound Rt. 40 as the suspect walked toward them, followed by the two troopers.
The North East officer gave multiple commands to the suspect to surrender and warned him he would use his Taser. The suspect continued to refuse and kept his hand in his pocket.
Without warning, the suspect lunged toward TFC Parker. In fear for his life, TFC Parker fired one shot from his Beretta .40 caliber pistol. Simultaneously, the North East officer fired his Taser at the suspect.
Emergency care was immediately provided to the suspect, who had been struck by the gunshot in the upper torso. A Maryland State Police helicopter flew the suspect to the Shock Trauma Center.
No police officers were injured during the incident. None of the motorists whose vehicles were struck by the large rocks were injured.
Maryland State Police crime scene technicians responded and processed the scene, requiring westbound Rt. 40 to be closed for several hours. As of late tonight, the suspect’s handgun had not been found, but the search is continuing.
Investigators from the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit responded and are conducting the investigation, assisted by criminal investigators from the North East Barracks. The Maryland State Police Internal Affairs Unit is also conducting an administrative investigation into the police involved shooting, which is required by department regulations.
TFC Parker has been a member of the Maryland State Police for three and one-half years. He has been placed on routine administrative leave, which is customary when a trooper is involved in a shooting.
Upon the suspect’s release from the hospital, he will continue to be in the custody of the Maryland State Police. He will be served with pending criminal charges at that time.
Comments
Holding back the name of officers ***in the immediate wake** of an incident is reasonable and prudent for all manner of practical as well as political and PR reasons. Exceptions to that prudence should be rare and based in practical and reasonable reasoning; but second guessing their motives with every event doesn't help anyone.
All that said, within a reasonable time frame (24? 48? 72?) the public information should be made public.
Posted by: m | December 10, 2009 5:51 PM
Once again, Peter Hermann shows his disdain for cops, which is almost as much as his disdain for prosecutors. Doesn't the Sun already have a criminal loving reporter in Rodricks? Can't we get an unbiased crime reporter? I think the difference between the two incidents is obvious. One was an off duty police officer who was protecting a store full of people. Another was an on-duty officer who was pretty much acting in self defense. Not that that makes his actions not heroic, but there is a clear difference. Not that it makes any sense why you need to know any of their names at all. Why does it matter except you just need to feel like you are in the know? Unless there are allegations of misconduct relating to the shooting or the officer has been involved in a large number of shootings, who cares?
Posted by: Eli | December 11, 2009 8:58 AM
Eli, thanks for the note. It has nothing to do with whether the police rightfully shot these people and everything to do with the city police being accountable to the public and consistent. By calling one officer a hero (and very quickly, I might add), it implies the officers involved in the other shooting aren't heroes.
Posted by: Peter Hermann | December 11, 2009 9:25 AM
I have to side with Eli on this one, Mr. Hermann. I did not see that implication when I read about these incidents. In my opinion, every man or woman who chooses to take up the defense of the public of Baltimore by becoming a police officer is worthy of the respect due a hero. Not explicitly calling the two officers involved in this recent shooting heroes does not lessen the fact that they are. In fact, if the police department routinely used the word "hero" to describe officers involved in dangerous incidents such as shootings, I'm sure the news media would comment on the cheapening the term. While all these officers deserve the hero label, perhaps they only wished to point up the Hampden incident as one of an officer going above and beyond the call of duty to protect the citizens of Baltimore even when he's on his own time.
Posted by: JoeW | December 11, 2009 1:04 PM
I think it would be obvious that the officers' names are withheld for their protection against retribution. Did it not occur to you that they also live in the city and come and go from their homes every day? They are doing the job that no other sensible person would do, they are not paid enough to live on for the priveledge, and you would like them to become targets as our thanks for their service? Please think again.
Posted by: Mom | December 12, 2009 2:22 PM