ALERT: Baltimore police said the victim has died .... A city police officer shot and wounded a man this morning who officials said was brandishing two knives on Edmondson Avenue. As is typical at such scenes, police had a wide area blocked off with crime scene tape, and about the only view was of officers milling about and the flashing lights atop cruisers.

Read full story here.

But just as police spokesman Det. Kevin Brown was about to address the television cameras, several young men and women standing at a nearby corner tried to shout him down. "They was wrong," one young man said of the officer who fired.

One woman wanted to know why the officer didn't user her Taser. Another shouted cover-up, pointing to how far back the public was kept from the scene. Brown took the bait. "How many people did we shoot this year?" he asked.

"Twenty-five, thirty," one answered.

"How many times have your own people shot your own people?" Brown asked, "You're worried about this? Really?" He pointed out that we were near a shooting earlier this year in which six people were wounded, and few if any witnesses stepped forward, or voiced outrage at the violence.

One man said the officer "just pulled up and didn't know what was going on" before she fired her weapon.

Another police spokesman, Det. Donny Moses, pleaded with the onlookers to step forward if they actually witnessed the shooting. "Please, we have detectives who want to talk to you," he said, walking over to the group. "If you saw it, help us out."

But pressed by a reporter and police, the man and others said they had not seen the actual shooting. As for the actual numbers of police-involved shootings, our numbers differ from city police, who count incidents.

According to city police, there have been three police involved shootings that resulted in fatalities and six in which people were wounded. Our numbers, which include how many individual victims were were at each scene, show five fatalities and eight wounded. That includes January's shooting outside Select Lounge in which officers accidentally shot and killed an undercover officer, who had just fatally shot a man, and wounded three bystanders.

There have been 182 homicides so far this year in Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Police shootings, Southwest Baltimore
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III tells "60 Minutes" that he's wary of police using Tasers to control suspects. The CBS news show broadcast a segment Sunday night about how officers overuse the device.

Police agencies have long tried to find ways to control combative suspects without resorting to deadly force. The Taser, which sends electricity into a person's body, is billed as a non-lethal way of controlling people.

People have died from being hit by Tasers, and officials debate the merits of the device constantly (here's one study from Stanford University). And here's a report on Tasers from the Maryland Attorney General's Office. Also, the National Institute of Justice conducted a study on Taser deaths in 2008, and followed it up with another study in 2011.

The Sun's crime report, Justin Fenton, and health reporter Meredith Cohn, explored the use of Tasers in Maryland in an article last year, after the death of a Baltimore County man.

We can't recall Bealefeld speaking out about Tasers before, but he did testify in 2009 against civilians being able to use them, calling the Taser an "extraordinary weapon."

The CBS show concentrated on police using Tasers too much, as a substitute for other ways of controlling suspects.

Two Baltimore police officers interviewed by the show said the loved Tasers and Bealefeld himself said his own troops are clamoring for them. Here's the exchange with Bealefeld from the show, from the "60 Minutes" website:

Continue reading "Baltimore's police commissioner tells 60 Minutes he's wary about Taser use" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Police shootings, Top brass
        

A Howard County teenager shot and critically wounded by Howard County police officers had told authorities before that he wanted to be shot. On a standoff with police in early October, authorities said he told an officer to shoot him -- "just do it" and "make it quick."

Here's an account of the shooting by The Sun's Andrea F. Siegel:

The shooting of a teenager by six Howard County police officers comes several weeks after he told officers to shoot him and "make it quick," and was his third incident with local police in two months, department officials said Tuesday.

"He's had some psychological problems, but he's never hurt anyone but himself," said Kenneth Nichols, whose son, Jeffrey Dustin Nichols, 19, suffered eight gunshot wounds Monday. He was in critical condition Tuesday at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
 
Kenneth Nichols said his son was a whiz in math and science, and had been a student at the Community College of Baltimore County. He said his son took this semester off to focus on personal issues, and had recently been hospitalized. Now, he said, "I just pray he makes it."

Read here for the complete story, including names of the six police officers involved in the shooting.

Howard County police released a new statement on the shooting Wednesday morning, saying that the teen had on prior occasions threatened officers with a knife and was cutting himself. Police also said that in the latest shooting he was armed with a pellet gun that looked like a real gun.

Here is the statement:

Continue reading "Teen shot by Howard County officers wanted to be shot before" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Howard County, Police shootings
        

A man who was shot in the left arm by a Baltimore sheriff's deputy, and described as alert and talking as he was rushed to a hospital, is now in critical condition at Johns Hopkins. The man's mother told me he's on life support.

The mother of Jontae L. Daughtry said she was told her son became combative when corrections officers were doing what's called a "bedside commitment," essentially a hospital-room arraignment. The mother said doctors told her they gave him a sedative and that he suffered an allergic reaction. She also said he hit his head.

Daughtry has a history of psychological problems and police said that last Friday he climbed into the front seat of a marked sheriff's cruiser that was stopped at a light in Northeast Baltimore and lunged at the deputy with a knife. The deputy shot him once.

More details here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore, Police shootings
        

A report released today blames Baltimore police commanders for poorly supervising a chaotic response to the shooting outside Select Lounge in which four officers fatally shot a plainclothes officer they mistook for a gunman.

The long awaited report by an independent commission into the shooting of Officer William H. Torbit Jr., and of a man who was fighting him, recommends police better train officers and supervisors in how to handle crowds. The report says Torbit inflamed tensions that led up to the shooting.

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing. At left, The Sun's Kim Hairston captures Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III holding the report.

Read a summary of the report.

Read the full report.

Watch video of the shooting.

Look at crime scene pictures.

Read account of the shooting by officers involved.    

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore police say a man has died after exchanging gunfire with a police officer responding to a domestic violence call.

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says police responded to a call Saturday morning around 1:40 a.m. reporting that a man had shot his wife in East Baltimore. When officers arrived in the 1800 block of Hope St. they found the man armed with a gun.

Guglielmi says the man was combative with police and confronted officers. He says it appears several shots were fired from both sides. It was not clear if the man died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound or a shot fired by a police officer.

The condition of the man's wife was not clear. Police expected to have more information Saturday afternoon.

The shooting appears to be the second fatal police-involved incident this week. On Sunday, a 52-year-old musician was fatally shot in Brooklyn after police say he did not comply with officers' orders to put down a weapon. This year, city police have been involved in seven shooting incidents, killing four.

-With AP

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Police today said that a 52-year-old musician was sitting on his bed in his room when he was fatally shot Sunday night by a city patrol officer after refusing to drop a weapon that turned out to be a pellet gun.

The agency identified the officer as Joseph Schanamann, a four year veteran who has been involved in one prior shooting - in 2009, when he shot a police dog that attacked him, according to reports at the time. Schanamann is on routine administrative suspension as detectives investigate the shooting.

There's been an outpouring of grief among friends of victim Steve Mach, stretching from Baltimore to New York City, where he worked for years as a lighting tech at the famed CBGB's rock club. Before that, he played in a few glam rock bands, including a local group called The Vamps.

"It's a shock to us all," said Jackie Luther, who worked with Mach at CBGB. "He was a very gentle person. I can't see this happening - it's very out of character." 

Luther said Mach had moved back to Baltimore a few years ago after the death of his mother. He was an animal activist who worked with BARCS, the South Baltimore animal rescue shelter, and owned several cats, she said. He did not have a criminal record here. 

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said officers were called to Mach's home in the 3600 block of St. Victor St. after his roommate called police to report that Mach was armed and said he was fearful for his own safety. Officers entered the home and went upstairs, where they found Mach sitting on his bed. The officers demanded that he drop a weapon he was holding - police describe it as a pellet gun that resembled a .45 caliber handgun - and fired at least one shot when he refused to comply.

"You have to follow police commands, especially when you're holding a weapon in your hands," Guglielmi said. 

Friends have scheduled a candlelight vigil for Mach tonight (Wednesday) in front of his home. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Police shootings, South Baltimore
        

UPDATE: Police have released more details on Sunday's shooting.

Word of the identity of a 52-year-old man shot by city police Sunday night came in an unlikely place - the Facebook page for legendary New York City punk rock venue CBGB's.

On Monday afternoon, the CBGB page displayed a picture (seen at right) accompanied by the caption, "Rest in Peace to Steve Mach. We are so stunned at this tragic loss. You will be missed." Friends said Mach was the man shot by police Sunday night in the Brooklyn neighborhood of South Baltimore.

Police said they had been called to a home in the 3600 block of St. Victor St. for a report of an armed man and saw Mach holding what appeared to be a handgun. When he turned toward the officer, he was shot and wounded. Police later learned he had been holding a pellet gun, and he died at a local hospital.

According to various web sites, Mach was a member of a Baltimore-based glam rock cover band called The Vamps that became popular in the region and did some touring. In the late 80s, he moved to New York City and teamed up with Billy Idol's former drummer, forming a band called Skin N Bones. He also worked at CBGB's, with one site referring to him as "CB's Lighting Magician": "I remember seeing him almost every time I was there," one friend posted on the venue's Facebook page. "He worked at CB's forever. He was a musician, an animal advocate, and a friend," another wrote. The club closed in 2006.

The Vamps had in recent years played reunion shows in the area, including Dec. 10 at the Recher Theater. Mach did not have a criminal record, records show, and police haven't provided additional details on the dispute that led to the shooting.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (51)
Categories: Police shootings, South Baltimore
        

UPDATE, 12:45 P.M. - Police say the victim, a 52-year-old who has not yet been identified, died from his injuries. Police also say the weapon he was holding was a pellet gun that looked like a .45 caliber handgun.

Baltimore police officers, responding to a call for a man armed with a gun inside a house in Brooklyn, shot and critically wounded the suspect Sunday night. Here is an account from The Sun:

Police received a call shortly before 9 p.m. from a person inside a house in the 3600 block of St. Victor Street in the Southern District, saying that another person in the house was armed, sand police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. He said patrol officers entered the house and found an armed man between 40 and 50 years old and asked him multiple times to put down his weapon.

"He turned and faced police with a weapon in his hand and was fired upon," said Guglielmi, who said at least one officer fired. He did not know how many officers had responded to the call.

The man was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in critical condition, Guglielmi said. Homicide detectives are investigating, a practice that is standard in police-involved shootings, Guglielmi said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Police shootings, South Baltimore
        

Some new details from police on the fatal shooting in Dundalk Sunday night.

Officers had been called to a man threatening suicide and shot a man they said charged at them with a knife from behind a closed glass storm door. The officer who opened fire was outside on the porch.

This has raised some questions about whether the officers were in danger. Late this afternoon, Baltimore County police said this:

The man's girlfriend had told a 911 operator that the man was armed with knives and was “fixing to get someone hurt,” according to a department spokeswoman quoting from a transcript of the call.

Police dispatchers told the officers responding to the rowhouse that the man’s girlfriend had indicated in her 911 call that the man was threatening suicide and that the “first person who comes near him will get stabbed.”

“He was a very dangerous individual,” said police spokeswoman Elise Armacost.

Armacost said the first officer to respond went up to the porch, saw the man inside holding a large knife with his back to her. She turned the door handle and then the man turned and charged at her. A backup officer fired several times through the door, hitting the man.

Reaction from the family:

Continue reading "Man shot by officers through door threatened to stab, police say" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County, Police shootings
        

A man armed with a knife who was shot during a confrontation with Baltimore County police Sunday night has died, and a department spokeswoman confirmed a witness account that an officer fired at the man through a glass storm door.

"They killed an innocent man who needed help,” said Sandra Jacobs, whose daughter dated the man.

Det. Cathy Batton, a county police spokeswoman, said Monday that the 40-year-old man “was behind a glass door” and  “was charging at the officer” with a knife in his hand. She said the officer and the man were in “close proximity.”

A statement released by police this morning said officer responded about 9:20 p.m. to the home in the 7000 block of Berkshire Road for a man threatening suicide. Officers saw Nathaniel D. McCormick “standing near the door inside the home” and ordered him to drop the knife.

Police said in the statement that he refused. “He then charged toward the front door and the officers standing on the front porch on the other side of the door. Fearing for their safety, one officer fired several rounds from his duty weapon.”

Another spokesman, Lt. Robert McCullough, said the man “was coming through the door at the officer” and at one point had been armed two knives, one with a nine-inch blade. Batton said this morning she did not know which knife he was holding when he was shot.

Police said the shooting is under internal investigation and that the officer who fired his weapon has been placed on routine administrative leave. Batton declined to release the name of the officer.

Read here for more details.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Baltimore County, Police shootings
        

The police officers who fired on fellow Officer William H. Torbit Jr. outside the Select Lounge back in January are refusing to testify before a panel examining the incident. The Sun's Justin Fenton reports that they are afraid their testimony will be used for administrative sanctions.

James K. "Chips" Stewart, the chair of the commission, told Justin:

"They were the officers that had a unique perspective, since they were there and saw the incident unfolding," said Stewart, a policy analyst and former police commander. "While we have all the evidence about what they did, we did not have some of the reasons for it. We wanted to be sure they had an opportunity to express those reasons, and they didn't."

Baltimore's state's attorney cleared the officers of criminal wronging in the fatal shooting, which also left another man dead and three bystanders wounded. But the officers still face internal reviews that will determine whether they broke administrative rules.

The commission was set up by the mayor to review policies and procedures to prevent another plainclothes officers for being mistaken by colleagues for a gunman. Read Justin's full story here, and see links to police reports, photos and a video of the shooting.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Police shootings
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner went on the Marc Steiner show on Morgan State University's WEAA-Radio and confronted his critics. Listen to show here.

On police protecting their own: "One of things I've tried to do is avoid all these blanket indictments and over-generalizations. We should be constantly testing and challenging ourselves in the community. What kind of service do we provide or don't we provide? What kind of professionalism do we have?"

He noted the arrests of officers in a towing scandal and reminded people that the department lured them to the training academy under a ruse that their guns needed to be checked and then busted them. He said that despite rumors the arrest plan had been compromised, all but two officers showed, proving to him that the rumors were false. The other two had been out of town.

But he said he felt there were legitimate concerns about what sergeants and lieutenants were doing while officers were directing unsuspecting motorists to a towing company not approved by the city, but one that was paying off cops for the extra business. "If they were really paying attention to their people, why wouldn't they know?" he asked.

Continue reading "Bealefeld defends department on Steiner" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Neighborhoods, Police shootings, Top brass
        

The police officer who fatally shot the unarmed Marine outside a nightclub last year was sentenced today to 17 years in prison, with two years suspended. Officer Gahiji Tshamba was convicted last month of manslaughter.

There's still a potential lawsuit and unanswered questions about how Tshamba, who had a history of getting into trouble while drinking, had been allowed to continue on the force. The shooting outside the club was the culmination of an argument that started when the victim grabbed or patted the buttocks of a woman outside the Mount Vernon club.

A federal judge recently ruled that the victim's family can proceed with a lawsuit against the police department. The family is accusing the city of failing to control the officer, seen here being led out of the downtown courthouse during his trial. The photo was taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

More stories on Tshamba:

Judge will review Tshamba's troubled past in deciding sentencing.

A look at the victim, Tyrone Brown, and his own past as an Iraqi war veteran.

Witness accounts of the shooting.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Downtown, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

Today's papers gives you a story on the final police report into the January shooting in which four Baltimore police officers mistook their colleague for a civilian and fatally shot him outside the Select Lounge.

The shooting, which killed Officer William H. Torbit Jr. and one his attackers, stunned a city and left the police department reeling. The report -- more than 1,100 pages -- describes the chaotic moments that night in which 42 bullets were fired.

One officer standing off to the side recognized Torbit and screamed, "Stop shooting, he's one of us," as did a deputy police major. An officer who fired, realizing after what she had done, cradled the dying Torbit in her arms, and could then be seen crying over him on the street.

Many questions remain -- among them, did Torbit, while lying on his back, fire up into a crowd of attackers after or while they were dispersing due to another officer's pepper spray? A commission is still looking into the event and could recommend changes in the department's rules and regulations.

Here is the story.

Watch video of the shooting.

Read the summary of the police report.

Look at photos from the crime scene.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Police shootings
        

In case you missed out on today's paper, here are some police stories to ponder:

Video of Select Lounge shooting released. This is the January shooting where police officers mistook a colleague for a suspect and fatally shot him outside a nightclub. Watch the shooting.

Roommate testifies that the suspect in the killing of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn confessed to robbing him in Charles Village.

Annapolis teenager pleads guilty to killing toddler.

Nathan Krasnopoler, the Johns Hopkins University student who was struck and critically injured by a car while riding his bicycle along University Parkway in February, died Wednesday morning. A lawyer for the family said the 83-year-old driver who struck Krasnopoler has agreed to forfeit her license. Read Michael Dresser's Getting There blog.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating this morning in the case of a man charged with killing an informant in a federal drug case. The victim's statement to the FBI was leaked and posted around his Westport neighborhood.

A series of mall robberies in the city, Anne Arundel and Howard Counties are linked, and also connected to a murder in Baltimore.

A Baltimore drug dealer is sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in a fatal hit and run crash.

A Glen Burnie man was fatally stabbed and his female companion is being held in her death.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Howard County, North Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Baltimore police Wednesday night released video of January's shooting at Select Lounge, in which four police officers accidentally shot and killed a plainclothes officer who was shooting at another person during a fight. The officers mistook the plainclothes officer, William H. Torbit Jr., for a suspect.

You have to watch the video several times to make out what's happening. The attorney for the man Torbit was shooting at, and killed in the gunfire, says it shows his client being shot while trying to run away from the melee.

State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein declined to prosecute anyone in the case, including the four officers who fired on Torbit, or any of the people involved in the fight. Read a complete version of Justin Fenton's story on the issue.

A separate commission is still reviewing the case to determine if city police need to change their practices.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Police shootings
        

Breaking news from Justin Fenton:

The four officers involved in the fatal shooting of a police officer and an unarmed 22-year-old man outside a downtown Baltimore club in January will not face criminal charges, the city state's attorney's office announced this afternoon.

Also cleared of wrongdoing is at least one civilian who got into an altercation with Officer William H. Torbit Jr., which is believed to have prompted the series of shootings that killed Torbit and bar patron Sean Gamble.

Investigators believed that Torbit shot and killed bar patron Sean Gamble in a struggle, and that the four uniformed officers returned fire unaware that Torbit was a fellow officer. Forty-one rounds were fired by the five officers, including Torbit.

Read full story here.

Mayor's statement:

Continue reading "No charges in Select Lounge shooting" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Police shootings
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein is to announce this afternoon a decision on whether to prosecute anyone in January's Select Lounge shooting, in which city police officers mistakenly shot and killed a colleague during a fight outside a bar.

A separate review by a panel of law enforcement experts are still conducting a separate review into the case to determine whether proper police procedure was followed and whether any changes need to be made. The department has already curtailed the deployment of plainclothes officers.

Officer William H. Torbit Jr., along with 22-year-old Sean Gamble, were killed in the shooting.

Torbit, 33, was on duty and in plainclothes when he was overcome by a crowd leaving Select Lounge on North Paca Street. Police said he fired during the altercation, killing Gamble. Other officers then opened fire on Torbit, unaware that he was a fellow officer.

Bernstein could announce indictments against the officers, or say that the investigation proved the incident to be a tragic mistake. His news conference is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Police shootings
        

Baltimore police say an officer shot an armed man in Northwest Baltimore early Tuesday. Here, Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi explains the shooting. The man was criticially wounded, and police said they recovered his gun.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings
        

A city police officer shot and wounded a man who authorities say was armed with a handgun early today in the 3900 block of Carlisle AVe., in Northwest Baltimore's Windsor Hills neighborhood. It's located west of Lake Ashburton.

Details are still coming in, but police said in a statement that the officer approached "an individual armed with a handgun. The officer fired at least one round and the suspect is struck at least once."

Police described the wounded man an adult who was taken to an area hospital where he was in critical and stable condition. Police said the officer was not hurt and the handgun was found at the scene. A news conference has tentatively been scheduled for later this morning. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings, West Baltimore
        

The Baltimore Police Department has identified the officers involved in Wednesday's shooting in Northeast Baltimore.

Detective Joseph Crystal, a two-and-a-half year veteran, and Detective James McShane, a six-year veteran, were conducting a drug investigation when they approached a vehicle in the 1400 block of Fillmore Street and the driver reached for a weapon, police say. He apparently did not fire any shots.

The officers opened fire, and the driver sped off. His bullet-riddled vehicle was later located in East Baltimore, and police were notified that the man had walked in to University of Maryland Medical Center for treatment for gunshot wounds to his arm.

Police said no weapon was recovered, and it is not clear if the man has been charged with a crime.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore, Police shootings
        

A 34-year-old man was shot by Baltimore police officers after officials say he pulled a gun on them during a traffic stop in Northeast Baltimore.

Police say plainclothes officers were conducting a drug investigation at about 11 a.m. in the 1400 block of Fillmore Street, in the Coldstream Homestead Montebello neighborhood, and pulled over a Jeep and approached the driver. Detective Donny Moses, a spokesman, said the driver pulled a handgun from between the seats and detectives opened fire on him.

The man was able to speed off and elude officers, and the bullet-riddled vehicle was later located in the 1000 block of Central Avenue near Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore, Moses said. There was blood on the inside, but there was no victim and no weapon.

At about 1:45 p.m., a gunshot victim walked in to University of Maryland Medical Center with a wound to his forearm, he said.

Continue reading "Police: Officers shoot man who pulled gun during traffic stop" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore, Police shootings
        

When Dennis Gregory was shot and killed by Baltimore police officers in February 2010, the department reported that Gregory had aimed a gun at the officers, who fired back.

As it would turn out, The Sun reported in March for the first time, Gregory had been an informant who had summoned officers to the scene to report a friend armed with a handgun. It was the friend, Glenn Brooks, who exchanged gunfire with the officers Chris Funk and Matthew Ryckman, who shot and killed Gregory, who was unarmed. Gregory's family said they had been stymied in their attempts to learn more about the case, with calls and visits to police going unacknowledged.

Now, in compliance with a Public Information Act request, the police department has released to The Sun hundreds of documents related to the investigation that shed some additional light on what led to the shooting. [The department initially withheld eight pages of the 17 page summary report without disclosing that the pages were not being released, as required by the public information law. The documents were only produced after a reporter challenged why the report did not include any statements from the officers involved in the shooting, which had been the crux of the initial request.]

The new documents reaffirm that the shooting appears to be a tragic mistake in pursuit of an armed offender, though one which the family says the department has not been up front about and which some say is indicative of poor training.

Continue reading "Documents: Report on shooting that killed unarmed informant" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Breaking news from Tricia Bishop:

After a six-day trial, a judge on Thursday found Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji Tshamba guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death last year of Tyrone Brown, a Marine veteran haunted by war.

[Read Tshamba's first public account of the shooting]

The attorneys wrapped up their arguments shortly before noon, and Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon recessed for two hours to make his decision.

“The defendant overreacted and in fact exacerbated this whole tragic” set of event, said Baltimore Circuit Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon. Picture of Tshamba leaving the courthouse on Wednesday is by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

More than 21 witnesses appeared over six days, offering varied accounts of what happened — or was likely to have happened — the morning of June 5, 2010, when Tshamba, who was off duty, shot Tyrone Brown a dozen times in a Mount Vernon alley way, as bars were letting out.

“What happened in that alley dealt with male ego, alcohol, women and a gun,” Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Wiggins said during his final arguments Thursday morning. “Anywhere you put that, that’s a bad combination.”

Brown, 32, had been drinking, and he groped one of Tshamba’s female companions that morning, sometime after 1 a.m. — that was one of the few uncontested facts in the case. But what happened afterward was harder to gauge, as testimony of one witness frequently contradicted the testimony of another.

Prosecutors said Tshamba was power mad and angry, using his weapon to intimidate — and eventually kill — Brown, a much bigger man. While the defense claimed Brown charged the officer, who had to react with lethal force to save his life and that of others’.

Defense attorneys entered a nine-page selection from the victim’s military records into evidence Thursday morning that showed Brown had a history of violence.

The judge’s decision came down to credibility and which witnesses he believed. “The court rejects the defendant’s version of events,” Hargadon said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking news, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

Those are the words of Gahiji Tshamba, the Baltimore police officer who shot an unarmed Marine a dozen times during a confrontation outside a Mount Vernon nightclub. The officer spoke for the first time during his murder trial.

He said he was being chased, backed into a corner and shot the man as he advaanced on him. An expert witness, a retired city cop who wrote the department's rules of force, testified on behalf of Tshamba, while the judge who is hearing the case without a jury questioned the officer's account.

Read the full story here. The incident started after the Marine, Tyrone Brown, grabbed the buttocks of a woman who was with Tshamba, who'se pictured at left coming out of the courthouse on Wednesday, in a photo by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

The officer testified:

Continue reading ""I was scared, I was in fear" " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports:

Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji Tshamba, who’s on trial for murder, took the witness stand Wednesday before a packed courtroom and said he was in fear for his life the morning he shot a former marine a dozen times outside a Mt. Vernon night club.

“I was scared, I was in fear” Tshamba said. “This man was chasing me.”

His testimony, which took less than an hour, opened what’s expected to be the final day of trial in the shooting death of Tyrone Brown, a 32-year-old father of two, the early morning of June 5, 2010.

Once the defense finishes its case, only closing arguments are left. Then it will be up to the judge to decide who’s side is more credible; Tshamba elected a bench — rather than jury — trial.

More on Tshamba case.

More on this morning's testimony:

Continue reading "Tshamba takes stand in own defense at shooting trial" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

From The Sun's court reporter Tricia Bishop:

Twelve bullets from an off-duty officer's gun struck Tyrone Brown, but it wasn't until the last one hit that the former Marine dropped.

Seven of them lodged in his 32-year-old body — they were later recovered from his buttocks, back, thighs and pelvis — and three passed clean through, an autopsy shows. Two others grazed him, leaving behind superficial wounds. And one hit him twice, entering and exiting a pinch of skin near his right hip, then driving back into his soft tissue and coming to a rest in his right buttock.

That one, which left a trail of wounds, likely hit Brown while he was bent over, Assistant Medical Examiner Melissa Brassell testified Thursday — the second day of the murder trial of Brown's killer, Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji Tshamba.

Tshamba, 37, got into a row with Brown outside a Baltimore bar on the morning of June 5, 2010, and shot him a dozen times as patrons emptied from the Mount Vernon bars. The officer says it was in self-defense, but prosecutors say Tshamba was the aggressor, drunk with power and alcohol.

Read full details from Tricia's story. The photos by Tricia are of Tshamba right after he shot Brown, and of his gun and the bullets, all of which are now part of his court trial.

In case you missed it, here's a compelling story, also by Tricia, of the opening day in Tshamba's trial, with a riviting account by a witness who acted out the shooting.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

The murder trial of Baltimore police officer Gahiji Tshamba, who unloaded his service weapon into a former Marine outside a Baltimore bar last year, began Tuesday morning with hearings to determine what evidence can be presented in court, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

Lawyers for Tshamba, 37, claim their client shot Tyrone Brown a dozen times in self-defense and was following proper police procedure during the incident, which happened in the early morning hours of June 5, 2010, after a night of club hopping. But prosecutors say Tshamba was intoxicated, irrational and that he murdered an innocent man who served the country.

The two sides spent the morning arguing about what can be said to a jury or judge, dependent upon what kind of trial Tshamba elects, though they agreed on one thing: Each wants the fact-finders to take a field trip to the crime scene, outside a back entrance to Club Hippo in Mount Vernon, during the proceeding.

"You don't get the largess of the situation until you get to the crime scene," said Assistant State's Attorney Kevin Wiggins.

Wiggins said at least two officers are prepared to testify that Tshamba appeared to be under the influence of alcohol after the shooting, talking about "how hot the chicks were that were with him that night" while he was being transported to Mercy Medical Center.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

A member of a police fugitive aprehension task force on the Eastern Shore shot a tire out on car with a fleeing fugitive, enabling officers to arrest two suspects Thursday afternoon. The officer fired when the driver took off with another officer hanging from the car window.

The incident occurred in Salisbury after officers stopped car occupied by a man wanted on a warrant charging him with armed robbery stemming from a home invasion in March on Kent Island, according to Maryland State Police.

Here is a full account of the shooting from authorities:

Continue reading "Police officer shoots tire on car of fleeing fugitive" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Crime elsewhere, Police shootings
        

A man fired shots at a police officer around 5 a.m. Wednesday from a home in Glen Burnie as officers responded to the residence for earlier reports of a gunshot, Anne Arundel police said.

The officer, a 17-year-veteran of the force, returned fire and took cover as officers from the Special Operations Section and Crisis Negotiations Unit surrounded the home, in the 100 block of Oak Spring Drive, just off Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard. Negotiators convinced a man inside the home to surrender at around 7:45 a.m.

The man was wearing body armor when he was taken into custody, police said, and no one was injured during the incident.

Police believe the man may have fired multiple shots at a home located behind the one on Oak Spring Drive, which prompted the initial call to police.

-Yeganeh June Torbati

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Police shootings
        

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Police say a man who stole a handgun from a bank security guard at Cross Street in Federal Hill was shot by police several blocks south after pulling the weapon on officers, a city police spokesman said.

Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman, said preliminarily that it did not appear that the man attempted to rob the bank. He took the guard's gun and tried to carjack a woman, but was unsuccessful. Guglielmi said the man fled south, discarding clothing, but was chased by citizens who were calling police and relaying his location. He was eventually located in the 1800 block of Light St., west of Riverside Park in South Baltimore. 

"We received tremendous help from the community," Guglielmi told reporters at the scene. "We have them to thank for his capture. He was shedding clothing, trying to change his appearance, and people kept telling us, ‘He went this way, he’s wearing that.’”"

There, Guglielmi said the man pulled the handgun and was shot by officers multiple times. He was taken to an area hospital, where he was reported to be conscious and breathing.

Taking a jog through Federal Hill, Lisa Morabito was in front of the bank when she saw the suspect bolt out the front door. The silver handgun glimmered in the sun. She said a male security officer exited next, saying, “He took her gun!” Morabito said she saw the suspect dart into the Cross Street Market.

“It took me a couple seconds to process it,” said Morabito, a Sykesville resident who was on a break from her job at a nearby animal shelter.

Justin Winn, 27, a subcontractor with BGE, was working in an alley between off Barney St. and was taking a break when he saw a man come out of a convenience store on the southeast corner of Barney and Light.

“I saw the guy come out of the market. He turned around and pulled out what looked like a gun. Two police officers came up and unloaded on him," Winn said.

Continue reading "Police shoot man in South Baltimore" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Police shootings, South Baltimore
        

The Baltimore Board of Estimates on Wednesday morning approved $45,000 that the Police Department spent on the funeral of Officer William Torbit, as well as $75,000 requested for the commission appointed to investigate his death.

Torbit was fatally shot by fellow officers in January after responding in plainclothes to a disturbance outside the Select Lounge. Torbit was said to have been overcome by an unruly crowd, and fired his service weapon, killing civilian Sean Gamble. Other officers in the area instinctively returned fire, killing Torbit, according to reports.

[Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron]

Police officials initially said the investigation into the shooting would take three weeks, but it dragged on for about two months. A police spokesman said a final report was handed to Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III last week, and a task force of experts appointed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has begun reviewing the findings and will make recommendations.

The Sun's City Hall reporter, Julie Scharper, asked Rawlings-Blake about the expenditures:

Continue reading "City approves spending for officer funeral, shooting investigation" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: City Hall, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Three Baltimore police officers and a Baltimore County firefighter will be honored next month at the annual Fallen Heroes Day ceremony at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. The event is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Friday, May 6.

A procession of 25 honor guards will open the ceremony at the Timonium cemetery, which is to include an address by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

At left is a photo from Fallen Heroes day in 2009, taken by The Sun's Lloyd Fox.

Here is a list of police and firefighters being honored, from a statement issued by organizers:

Continue reading "Dulaney Valley honors fallen police, firefighters" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Police shootings
        

The shooting of Marine veteran Tyrone Brown (far left) by off-duty Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba  quickly became a sensation -- an out-of-control cop with a questionable past linked to drinking had unloaded his gun into an unarmed man who had groped a woman outside a Mount Vernon night club.

The 15-year-veteran officer had led a turbulent career -- shot a man while drunk, crashed his car into a gas station, and was being pursued by creditors and ex-girlfriends. After the shooting, which he says is self-defense, he briefly disappeared, leading to an unprecedented police manhunt for one of their own [read all stories related to the shooting].

But now, as his murder trial nears, new information is emerging about the victim -- a man himself haunted by a violent past in combat, having shot a child, and struggling with vodka and marijuana. He was being treated for depression and suffered post traumatic stress disorder.

None of this may have anything to do with why he got shot that June night, but the officer's defense lawyer wants to  use these newly disclosed psychiatric records to try and convince a jury that the victim had aggressive tendencies. The lawyer hopes that will make the officer's self-defense story more credible.

Read a full account of Brown's past in this chilling story by The Sun's court reporter, Tricia Bishop. And read for the first time some of the witness statements:

Continue reading "Man killed by off-duty cop "haunted by violence"" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Downtown, Police shootings
        

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Every month since her brother was shot and killed by police last year, Priscilla Johnson has gone back to the Northwest Baltimore neighborhood where he died to hand out fliers, begging for anyone who saw something to come forward.

What his family knows, gleaned largely from media reports, is that Dennis Gregory was a bystander who was shot by detectives who were aiming for his friend Glenn Brooks. And they know from the autopsy that Gregory was hit four times in the back.

What they didn’t know is that Gregory was acting as a confidential informant that night and that it was his call to police to report that Brooks had a handgun that summoned them to the scene in the first place . The revelation is contained for the first time in court documents filed in federal court late last month and obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

Continue reading "Sun exclusive: Man killed by police was informant" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Ending weeks of speculation, the Baltimore mayor's office announced a review panel to examine last month's shooting of a plainclothes police officer by his colleagues, and the fatal shooting of another man in the same incident.

The Sun's Justin Fenton provides more details in today's story, which raises some questions. The panel is made up of two former police chiefs and a former U.S. Attorney, but contains no community members.

It's also unclear whether the group will hold public hearings, as has been done in other cities.

Officials say the independent review board will issue a comprehensive report on the circumstances that led to the agency's first fatal police-on-police shooting in more than 80 years, killing Officer William H. Torbit Jr. and civilian Sean Gamble, and make recommendations to improve policies.

"I am grateful for the individuals who have agreed to join this review board to conduct a thorough and independent study of this tragic incident," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. "Their findings will help us better understand what happened that night and improve training for our officers."

The city homicide unit's investigation into the shooting is still pending, with detectives awaiting final autopsy results from the state medical examiner's office and transcripts of witness interviews, officials say. Part of their report might include a computer re-creation of the incident.

Read the mayor's statement:

Continue reading "Review panel in police shooting set" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Latest updates on crime over the weekend in Baltimore, from city police spokesman Kevin Brown:

POLICE DISCHARGING (see story in The Sun)
500 Blk of Harwood Avenue
2/11/11 - 19:50 Hrs
 
Officers were dispatched to the 500 Blk of Harwood Avenue for an officer needs assistance call for service.  Upon arrival preliminary investigation revealed that an off-duty Baltimore police officer was sitting in a vehicle with a female companion when an individual approached and attempted entry into the vehicle. A scuffle ensued during the course of which the officer's weapon discharged at least once.  No one was struck and all parties involved are being interviewed by detectives to determine the course of events.  No charges have been filed as of yet. 
 

HOMICIDE
4000 Blk of Park Heights Avenue
2/11/11 - 10:33 Hrs
 
Officers responded to the location at the above date and time for a shooting call for service.  Upon arrival they located the victim, Mr. Jose Estrella (B/M 5/25/91) laying on the ground between two vehicle suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.  He was transported to Sinai Hospital and pronounced at 11:47 am.  No word as of yet on suspect or motive. 
 
NON-FATAL SHOOTING
1000 Blk of Ashland Court
2/11/11 - 22:49 Hrs
 
Officers responded to an east-side area hospital for a "walk-in" shooting victim.  Upon arrival they located the victim, a 25 year-old black male, suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg.  Investigation revealed that as the victim was walking within the 900 Blk of McAleer Court an unknown male began shooting at him.  The victim was stable and expected to recover at last condition check.  No word as of yet on suspect or motive. 
 
NON-FATAL SHOOTING
1800 Blk of Chester Street
2/12/11 - 00:36 Hrs
 
Officers responded to the above location for report of a shooting.  Upon arrival they discovered the victim, a 32 year-old black male, suffering from gunshot wounds to the leg.  He was transported to an area hospital and at last check was stable and expected to recover.  No word as of yet on suspect or motive.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore, Police shootings
        

"He smirked at me."

That's how Baltimore Police Officer Todd Strohman described the gunman just before he
pulled the trigger, putting a bullet into his shoulder, a bullet that will remain inches above his heart for the rest of his life.

The cop had another message for state lawmakers who make up the Senate's Judiciary
Committee contemplating tougher guns laws proposed by the city (see city's website describing proposed legislation): If the proposed laws had been on the books, the person charged with shooting him wouldn't have been on the street.

The audience applauded Strohman and the lawmakers wished him well. There was no sense
in grilling him on the necessity of enhanced gun legislation. The man charged in the crime had served two years of a 12-year sentence for armed robbery (the judge had suspended six of the years) and had been charged with five previous gun crimes. He had gotten out a little more than two weeks before the shooting on North Calvert Street.

"Seventeen days after he gets out, he shoots one of our cops," said Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Barksdale.

See more on the gun hearing:

Continue reading "City, county leaders press for tougher gun laws" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Kenneth Harris trial, Neighborhoods, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore police are still working on their investigation into the Jan. 9 shooting at Select Lounge that left a city officer and 22-year-old civilian dead, officials say.

At a press conference three weeks ago, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said the investigation would take about three weeks, but officials say they are still awaiting an autopsy report. Cindy Feldstein, of the state medical examiner's office, confirmed that a cause and manner of death was promptly identified but that the full report has not been turned over. "We don't provide preliminary reports," Feldstein said, noting that a complete report often takes about a month.

In the meantime, Bealefeld is pushing forward with assembling a panel that will review the department's findings. Aides say that instead of referring the investigation to another agency, city officials want to form a commission of representatives from various organizations to review the case. 

Officer William H. Torbit and Sean Gamble were fatally shot in a melee outside the downtown club. It is believed that Torbit shot Gamble after being overwhelmed in a large crowd, then Torbit was shot by fellow officers who did not realize who he was. The five officers fired a total of 41 rounds. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

If the city's most outspoken activists gave Gregg Bernstein a honeymoon period after being sworn in earlier this month as Baltimore's new top prosecutor, it appears to be over.

Two groups of loosely-affiliated community organizations and special interests protested on opposite sides of the Mitchell Courthouse downtown on Monday, accusing Bernstein of being tight-lipped on a racially-charged assault case and criticizing his "unholy" alliance with the Police Department.

On the west side, protesters formed a picket line, invoking the shooting of Officer William H. Torbit Jr. and carrying signs with such incendiary slogans as "Arrogant Racist State's Attorney."

On the east side, people who said they represent black media and civil rights groups called on Bernstein to say more about his office's decision to drop felony assault charges against a member of a Jewish community patrol group.

"'No comment' will not suffice in the African American community," said Hassan Giordano, a blogger, talk show host and campaign consultant.

Bernstein, who defeated 15-year incumbent Patricia C. Jessamy in last year's Democratic primary election, had been supported by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who said a better relationship with prosecutors would help keep violent repeat offenders off the street.

Two high-profile and controversial cases are testing his public mettle early.  Read more here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: City Hall, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings, Top brass
        

The shooting of Baltimore police Detective Anthony N. Fata came just nine days after another officer, William H. Torbit Jr., was killed by fellow officers in a case of mistaken identity, and the night before the funeral.

It occurred in a city owned downtown parking garage a block of police headquarters, another crime near the harbor and another reason to stay away from Baltimore. Even the police are getting shot while parking.

But homicide detectives are now questioning how Fata, a 13-year veteran, was grazed in the thigh a bullet. There is some concern that the bullet came from the officer's own gun, and he made up an elaborate ruse to avoid either discipline or embarrassment.

Read more details of the case here. 

Continue reading "Doubts raised in shooting of detective" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Police shootings
        

If you haven't got enough of crime this week, check out the Midday with Dan Rodricks show on WYPR (88.1 FM) today at 1 p.m. I'll be on with Dan (also a colleague at The Baltimore Sun) to talk about the busy crime beat.

There's certainly no shortage of subject, and I'm sure the friendly-fire shooting of Officer William H. Torbit will dominate coverage. Among the topics -- the shooting itself and the independent review ordered by the mayor.

Here are just a few of the headlines:

Continue reading "Check out Midday with Dan Rodricks" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Police shootings
        

Two days after a Baltimore homicide detective was shot during what is being described as a chance encounter with a gunman in a downtown parking garage, police officials have still not located the shooter.

The detective – who was heading to his car to retrieve a pair of running shoes -- suffered a graze wound to his leg and has been treated and released from Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The shooting occurred Tuesday night in a parking garage on South Frederick Street, a block from the Central District station.

Police have declined to name the officer, citing a policy of not publicizing names of shooting victims who survive their wounds. But department sources have identified him as Detective Anthony N. Fata, a 13-year veteran.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Police shootings
        

The funeral for Officer William H. Torbit Jr. is now over and we await word from City Hall on the details of how an outside review of the case will unfold. Torbit was in plainclothes when he was shot and killed Jan. 9 by four fellow officers who mistook him for a gunman. Torbit was shot while fatally shooting another man during a fight.

The incident has sent shock waves through the Baltimore Police Department -- the mayor called it a "tragedy that shook us to our deepest core" -- and homicide detectives and prosecutors are still pouring over the details. City officials say the outside review is designed to examine the practices and procedures of the police department.

On Sunday, we reported about a national study done by a Harvard University professor looking at police-on-police shootings across the country. Many recent cases involved black undercover or plainclothes detectives as victims (Read the full report here).

On Wednesday, we got an e-mail from the National Black Police Association, which stated in part: "The recent shooting of Baltimore Police Officer Torbit reminds us of the constant dangers we face as law enforcement. Even Black law enforcement professionals in plain clothes or off-duty are in danger when doing the job they have been sworn to do."

(Photo is from Wednesday's funeral for Torbit at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen and was  taken by The Sun's Karl Merton Ferron)

ere is the full statement from the group, which will surely add to the debate and discussion about plainclothes officers:

Continue reading "Torbit's death sparks concern in black police group" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Police shootings
        

Baltimore's new state's attorney, Gregg L. Bernstein, got elected by promising that his close alliance with police would help make the city safer. Opponents warned of an end to prosecutorial oversight that would let cops run roughshod over city residents.

What no one expected, Peter Hermann writes, was a case that could not only pit the community against police but also police against police. The Jan. 9 fatal shooting of plainclothes Officer William H. Torbit Jr. by four of his colleagues who mistook him for a suspect is the top prosecutor's first test, occurring just days after he took office.

Was Torbit wrong to fatally shoot unarmed civilian Sean Gamble six to eight times in the chest during a fight? Were four uniformed officers wrong to open fire on Torbit, not knowing he was a fellow cop? Three civilians were also wounded in the fracas.

Already, the mayor's decision to allow an outside review has sparked anger at the police union hall and added a new political dimension to the case. Bernstein's wife, Sheryl Goldstein, is the mayor's chief advisor on crime issues, and the order from City Hall for independent oversight on police policies and practices comes as her husband has to decide whether the officers involved committed any crimes.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Police shootings
        

UPDATE: The police commissioner told reporters outside Maryland Shock Trauma Center that the officer was getting something out of his car when the man approached with a small caliber revolver. He said the incident did not appear to be a robbery and called it a "random, chance encounter," Jessica Anderson reports.

Police are reporting that a homicide detective was shot in the leg and hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after an encounter with a gunman in a downtown parking garage near police headquarters tonight.

The shooting occurred in a parking garage on Frederick Street, across the street from the Police Department's Central District and headquarters. A spokesman said that based on preliminary information, the officer was getting into work early and was struck in the leg by an unknown gunman. Police quickly blocked off the area in an attempt to find the suspect, who had not been located as of the last update.

It's also unclear whether the detective exchanged gunfire with the suspect.

The shooting hits home for police not only because of its proximity to headquarters but because police are preparing to bury one of their own tomorrow morning when Officer William H. Torbit Jr. is laid to rest. 

Torbit was killed by friendly fire in a shooting near downtown, and in November an officer was shot at East Baltimore and North Calvert streets, just a few blocks away from tonight's shooting. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Downtown, Police shootings
        

Continue reading "Family of Marine shot by city officer sues for $270 million" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Downtown, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

Incidents of fatal police-on-police shootings are incredibly rare. But they do happen, and departments across the country have learned the hard lessons Baltimore is now facing after the killing of plainclothes Officer William H. Torbit Jr., The Sun reported this weekend.

A Harvard professor, who chaired a commission that looked into such incidents after two officers were killed in New York, said police will have to scrutinize not only the actions of the officers who fired on Torbit, but Torbit himself.

The incidents gathered by the commission show that criminal charges are rarely if ever brought. The panel found the "unconscious racial bias" plays a major role in off-duty or plainclothes officers being mistaken for suspects, and that departments often have gaps in protocols among their own officers and other agencies they may come into contact with. Black officers here and elsewhere say being mistaken for suspects comes with the territory, and at least one supervisor we spoke with said he was in favor of instituting uniforms for plainclothes officers so that they are more easily identified.

Click here to read the full report from the New York commission that looked into police-on-police shootings. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Crime elsewhere, Police shootings
        

Amid calls from the public for an independent investigation, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said this week that there would be an independent review of Sunday's shooting that left a veteran officer and a 22-year-old man dead. The city police union is now claiming that her announcement is an attempt to use the tragedy for political gain.

Through a public relations firm, the union sent out this statement:

"Should the current investigation determine that an independent review is warranted, the FOP would fully support such a review at that time.  We, too, want a thorough investigation of this incident to reveal all the facts of that night's events.  However, at this point, this action seems premature.  Mayor Rawlings-Blake should have confidence in her Police Commissioner and the Baltimore City Police Department and give them a chance to conduct an exhaustive investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding this tragedy.  The Baltimore City Police Department has one of the premier homicide units in the nation and a system of checks and balances is already in place, as the independent Baltimore City State's Attorney investigates every police-involved shooting in Baltimore.  The Baltimore City Police Department wants to work closely with the State’s Attorney’s Office to get to the bottom of this occurrence. For Mayor Rawlings-Blake to utilize this tragic incident for political gain is a tragedy in itself."

A spokesman for Rawlings-Blake said he would not have a response to the statement.

Tensions between City Hall and the city's public safety unions have been rising for months. A week ago, the police and fire unions held a press conference outside City Hall denouncing pay cuts and saying Rawlings-Blake wants to take credit for crime reductions while not compensating officers for their work. They also paid for billboards downtown last year that took shots at city officials.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: City Hall, Police shootings
        

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Wednesday morning that there will be an external review of Sunday’s shooting downtown that injured four people and killed an on-duty officer and unarmed civilian.

Police also ordered late Tuesday that they will require all plainclothes officers in district units to wear uniforms amid a slew of changes pending the completion of the inquiry into the shooting, according to the department’s chief spokesman.

At Wednesday’s Board of Estimates meeting, Rawlings-Blake said she was “very concerned by initial facts that indicate only police weapons were discharged” Sunday outside the Select Lounge in the 400 block of N. Paca St. at officers tried to quell an unruly crowd.

Officer William H. Torbit Jr. was killed by friendly fire when four officers shot at him after seeing him fire his weapon, according to police and sources. Civilian Sean Gamble, 22, was also killed and three women were shot and injured.

“The police investigation and the outside review will help us understand exactly what happened and help us learn from it and make sure that nothing like it happens again,” she said in a statement.

Ryan O’Doherty, a spokesman for the mayor, said officials were reaching out to gauge availability and interest from other agencies and a decision could be made next week.

Meanwhile, police moved to establish a more cohesive policy on how plainclothes officers operate and what they can wear, said the department’s chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. Plainclothes officers will be required to wear uniforms, while detectives in the department’s elite Violent Crimes Impact Section will have to wear identifiable vests or jackets. Commanders are also reviewing how such officers respond to large crowds.

Here's the mayor's full statement:

Continue reading "Police ban plainclothes; external agency to review shooting" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: City Hall, Downtown, Police shootings
        

Even the people William H. Torbit Jr. busted praised him.

At a vigil (picture at left by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam) and in interviews with The Sun's Justin Fenton, those who knew the 33-year-old Central District officer who was mistakenly killed by his own colleagues this weekend called him a tough but fair member of law enforcement.

It was, as Justin wrote, "a moment of unity in a neighborhood where police and residents are often at odds."

Complete story is here.

"He would talk to you, find out what your situation was," a woman who would only give her first name, Annette.

"He was that guy who'd walk up and calm the neighborhood down," Detective Michael Miller said. "I still take it as, he's going to come out and say this is all a joke. But it's reality."

As a city native, he wasn't intimidated by the streets and didn't retreat to the suburbs after finishing up work. Instead, he often found himself right back on those same corners, eating at restaurants, driving around to make sure it was safe for kids to play, getting his car washed and talking to residents. Sometimes he'd help serve patrons.

"I said, 'What you doing coming around here after work, somebody's going to kill you, boy,'" recalled friend Sean Rideout, who said he looked up to Torbit and followed him into law enforcement. "He came back because he loved his neighborhood. He loved his people."

Gregory Lassiter, 61, said Torbit could be rough. But he had nothing but praise for the officer.

"He used to throw me down, rough me up a bit, just to try to get me straight," said Lassiter, who says Torbit called him "Merlin" because of his bushy beard. "He stayed on me for a long while, explaining how old I was and how I needed to stop [hustling], and it finally sunk in. He's going to be missed."

A moment of unity indeed. Too bad it was just a moment. And too bad it had to happen under such tragic circumstances.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Downtown, Police shootings
        

Since early Sunday, the Sun has written two in-depth accounts of the fatal shooting outside a night club near downtown, but one point seems to be unclear, not only among readers but also some reporters and politicians: Officer William H. Torbit Jr. (seen at right) was on-duty when he responded to help quell the unruly crowd outside of Select Lounge. 

In the summer, the shooting of a Marine by an off-duty officer in Mount Vernon raised questions about whether officers should carry their weapons while consuming alcohol. That is not the case in this shooting - Torbit, a plainclothes officer assigned to the Central District, responded to a distress call from an officer already at the club trying to handle the crowd. His badge was either not visible or ripped off during the melee, according to the account pieced together by sources, police, and witnesses.

That point seems lost among many readers, who posted comments and e-mailed us wanting to know what Torbit's blood alcohol content was and wanting to revisit the off-duty weapon policy.

Sun reporter Jill Rosen sought comment on the shooting from councilmembers Monday, and City Council President Bernard "Jack" Young seemed to think Torbit was working security at the bar:

“With secondary employment, we need to make sure our officers know where officers are at all times — who they are and where they are,” Young said. “Somebody should have recognized him. We should at least be able to identify our own.”

Young said that the police department might consider having officers with second jobs wear something that would identify them as police.

“How can you identify another police officer unless they’re wearing something that says police?” he asked. “I feel this is something we probably could have avoided.”

Not only was Torbit not working secondary employment at Select Lounge, city police officers have been prohibited from moonlighting as bar security for more than two years, when Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III issued a ban. Instead, in key areas such as Power Plant Live and Federal Hill, police have pooled money from businesses to pay uniformed officers to work overtime at the direction of police commanders - not bar owners.

Union president Robert F. Cherry says the union and police commanders have crafted a proposal that would allow officers to resume working second jobs at bars, but he says the proposal has been sitting on Bealefeld's desk for months without a response.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: City Hall, Downtown, Police shootings, South Baltimore
        

Police are not confirming the identities of the officer or the civilian killed early this morning outside Select Lounge, so we won't have much more about the officer tonight. 

But relatives of Sean Gamble, the 22-year-old killed in the incident, are speaking out and say police recklessly fired into a crowd after a fellow officer pulled a gun. 

James Gamble, 24, was at the club with his brother and said the officer, who he believed was off-duty, had been aggressive toward a woman. His brother started arguing with the officer, and the argument escalated, Gamble said. He said a group of uniformed officers then began firing on the crowd when the plainclothes officer reached for his service weapon.

Police say the officer, William H. Torbit Jr., had lost his badge in the altercation. 

"It was a crazy scene," James Gamble said. "They let off a good 20 shots, maybe six of them. They were just shooting." 

[Photo courtesy Baltimore Saints via Facebook]

Continue reading "Brother says police overreacted in club shooting" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Downtown, Police shootings
        

Click here for the most updated version of this story.

UPDATE 11:45 p.m. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said police do not expect to provide more information today on the Sunday morning shooting. He said detectives will be gathering surveillance camera footage and reviewing physical evidence.

He said the three civilians who were shot and wounded were all women in the early 20s, who were shot in their lower extremities.

UPDATE: 10:10 a.m. Sources are identifying the officer killed this morning as William H. Torbit Jr., 33, who was assigned to the Central District operations unit. On Twitter and Facebook, friends are mourning the civilian victim, Sean "Loz" Gamble. Police are not confirming either victim's identity.

A friend, Corey Brown said Gamble had a young child and was engaged to be married. He worked for a waste management company and had no criminal record.

"He's not a violent kid - he's not in the streets," said Brown. "He's not even cut from that cloth. Apparently he got in a fight, and the cops start shooting. Not in the air - in the crowd, and they shot him."

Attempts to locate friends and family of Torbit were not immediately successful.

UPDATE: 6:45 a.m. Two Baltimore police officers were shot, one of them fatally, when gunfire erupted early Sunday outside of a club near downtown. Six people in all were shot and two killed.

Two sources said detectives are exploring whether the officer who was killed was shot by another officer amid a chaotic scene outside the Select Lounge in the 400 block of N. Paca St.

The incident occurred at about 1:15 a.m. when police were called to break up fights and control a crowd outside the club near Franklin Street in Seton Hill, said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. 

"There was an altercation that took place very near the club and some officers worked to intercede in that fight, at which time some gunshots were discharged," Bealefeld said. "Several officers fired multiple shots."

An eight-year veteran of the force whose name was not disclosed was shot and killed, Bealefeld said. A second officer, an 11-year veteran, was shot in the foot. Both officers were assigned to the Central District and were on duty, police said. One was in uniform and the other was in plainclothes, police said.

Continue reading "Two officers shot, one killed, outside downtown club" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
Categories: Breaking news, Downtown, Police shootings
        

UPDATE: Baltimore police told us a few minutes ago that the person shot has been declared brain dead. Additional details are below.

A man described as being in his late teens or early 20s brandished a handgun inside Judy's Island Grill & Bake Shop. The retired officer, who was eating inside, confronted and then shot the gunman.

Police released no other information Wednesday night, but we're expecting an update later this morning.

The Baltimore Sun reviewed the restaurant in 2007, which offered curried shrimp, oxtail stew and jerk fish. The reviewer seemed to like the offerings of Jamaican and Caribbean fare.

NEW INFORMATION:

Det. Kevin Brown, a city police spokesman, said the retired officer is 63 years old. He had been walking out of the carry-out when he encountered man about 25 years old who tried to rob the restaurant.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Five Maryland police officers died in the line of duty this year, the seventh highest number in the nation, and four of those were killed in car crashes.

The Baltimore Sun's transportation reporter, Michael Dresser, found that police fatalities across the country jumped 37 percent after two years of declines.

At left is the accident scene in October in which Officer Thomas Portz Jr. was killed when his cruiser slammed into the back of the a fire truck on U.S. 40 in West Baltimore. The photo was taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

Dresser wrote:

Continue reading "Maryland ranks high in police officer deaths" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Police shootings
        

A 31-year-old felon who was convicted in federal court of shooting at a Baltimore police officer in 2008 was sentenced this morning to nearly 24 years in prison. The U.S. District Court judge enhanced the sentence for Antonio Holton because he has three previous convictions for drug offenses and robbery, making him a career criminal.

It appears that federal authorities yanked the case out of Baltimore Circuit Court in mid-trial, after testimony had already begun in February 2009. It's not immediately clear why at this point, but the feds do take many of the city's gun cases because penalties in the federal system are harsher and conviction rates are better.

The case was first tried in Circuit Court, ending with a hung jury that was in favor of acquittal by a 10-2 margin, according to defense attorney Ivan Bates. Federal authorities then agreed to take the case. Court records show the case is pending in state court, but that appears to be a formality as they await the outcome of the federal proceedings.

At the onset of his trial in state court, Holton's attorney grilled Police Officer Jared Fried, a narcotics detective, on why he shot at his client 10 times, striking him once. The attorney also questioned why his client's DNA wasn't found on the .45 caliber Hi-Point pistol.

For more details:

Continue reading "Man sentenced to 24 years in prison for shooting at cop" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Police shootings, West Baltimore
        

Baltimore police have charged a suspect in this weekend's shooting of a Baltimore police officer. The suspect remains at Maryland Shock Trauma Center recovering from wounds he got during a shootout up North Calvert Street. Here are some more details on the shooting.

Officer Todd Strohman is the fourth city police officer shot and wounded this year, while city police have shot 10 citizens, killing two. That's one of the lowest totals in recent memory; in 2007, city police shot 33 citizens, 13 who died; and 22 were shot last year, with 8 fatally injured.

According to Sun reporter Meredith Cohn, Gross has three recent felony convictions:

Gross has been convicted of three felonies, according to court records. A police source said he was on parole for armed robbery at the time of this shooting.

Gross was convicted in 1998 of assault and sentenced to four years in prison, but a judge suspended three years and 10 months of the term. He was convicted in March 2008 of being a felon in possession of a handgun and sentenced to five years in prison, with time starting from the time he was arrested in May 2006.

In May 2008, while still in prison on the gun charge, he was convicted of a separate armed robbery charge and sentenced to 12 years in prison, with all but six years suspended. He had been paroled, police said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Downtown, Police shootings
        

UPDATE: Here's my story on the jury verdict. The attorney representing Stamp's widow said she was disappointed with the outcome but was pleased that the apparently differing versions of what happened are now public record. Torres' attorney did not return calls for comment.

It took jurors only a few hours to decide that Officer John Torres acted reasonably when he fired his service weapon, killing a fellow member of the force who was off duty and dressed in biker garb, The Daily Record's Brendan Kearney is reporting.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury of three men and three women returned a defense verdict Thursday morning after two weeks of trial, the paper reported on its website.

Norman Stamp, a well-liked 44-year veteran cop and cofounder of the “Chosen Sons” motorcycle club, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of April 24, 2008, at the scene of an East Baltimore strip club brawl.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Police shootings
        

In January, Baltimore police reversed a short-lived policy in which they stopped naming officers who fire their weapons. The police commissioner decided to be upfront and accountable with citizens, and he instead modified the policy to make the names public 48 hours after an incident.

But on Sunday, a school police officer shot and wounded a masked robbery suspect. The officer had confronted him after witnesses said a Family Dollar Store on Harford Road was being held up by armed men. In the end, no weapon was found.

There has always been confusion when giving out information that crosses police jurisdictions. No one wants to step on another agency's toes, so in the end the public gets less information than it deserves.

Baltimore homicide detectives are investigating the shooting to determine whether it's legal and within department policy. But school police are investigating the break-in, even though it wasn't on school grounds, and are responsible for charging the suspect once he gets out of the hospital.

But city police refuse to name the school police officer, even on Tuesday, 48 hours after the shooting, saying that's up to school police because he's their employee. And school police refuse to release the name on the advice of their lawyers.

The Baltimore Sun fought hard -- even making the issue part of a lawsuit aimed at forcing more information out of the department -- to convince city police to not change their policy so we could not just report the names but determine whether the officers had a past history of shootings, among other things.

Now we have city schools saying their attorneys won't allow the release of the name until the investigation is complete, and city police saying they're free to release the names of their cops when they want.

This double-standard is not good for anyone.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Police shootings, Top brass
        

A 35-year-old man was sentenced to serve 50 years in prison for shooting and seriously wounded two Baltimore police officers. The incident occurred as a result of a domestic dispute in the summer of 2009. Here are the details from a statement issued by the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office:

Judge Charles Peters sentenced Shawn Sinclair, 35, of the 2400 block of Harlem Avenue to life in prison suspend all but 50 years with the first 10 years without parole.  Sinclair pled guilty June 10, 2010 to two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of use of handgun in the commission of a crime of violence for crimes committed during an early morning domestic dispute that turned violent, with two police officers shot and seriously wounded.  Both officers offered victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing on September 23.

During the early morning hours of July 18, 2009 Shawn Sinclair, the defendant, became involved in a verbal dispute with his wife Angela Green, at 2412 Harlem Ave. The dispute escalated and the defendant assaulted his wife by punching her multiple times in her face.  He left the house and drove off in a red Ford Explorer – Maryland Tag # 14518M1 - that he and his wife owned.  After the defendant left the house, Ms. Green called the police to report the domestic assault.

For more details:

Continue reading "Man gets 50 years in shooting of officers" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Police shootings
        

After the weekend of September 10-13, we reported that the city had achieved - for the first time since April - a weekend without a homicide.

This weekend we can report an even better feat: no shootings.

That makes two weekends in the past four weeks without a killing. Chalk it up to whatever you like, but that's a good thing no matter how you slice it.

Technically, there was one shooting, but police say the victim was a masked man in the process of robbing a dollar store Sunday night, who was shot by a city schools police officer. He was shot once in the upper body and taken to an area hospital, and police are searching for two alleged accomplices who got away. If it is ruled justified, as most are, it will not count toward the city's annual total.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore, Police shootings
        

A Baltimore County police officer shot and critically wounded a man outside a Randallstown shopping center this morning.

Details remain sketchy but police said an officer responded to a call for a suspicious man and was attacked as soon as the pulled into the parking lot ofthe Kings Point Square center on Liberty Road near Marriottsville Road.

A police spokesman said a struggle broke out during which the man tried to grab the officer's weapon. A back-up officer then fired twice into the man's chest. He was listed in critical but stable condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Here is some updated information on the man shot earlier today by a Baltimore police officer. It was provided by the department's chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi:

INCIDENT RECAP:
This morning at approximately 230am, BPD responded to Agusta and Rokeby Avenue for report of a suspicious person. Upon arrival, police witness two individuals standing next to a parked car. As officers approach the individuals for questioning, 26 year old Steven Grant flees the location and leads police on a foot chase where he eludes capture for a short time. Grant was later captured approximately 5 blocks from the scene and police are still searching for a weapon.

The second suspect, 30 year old Jimmy Lucas (left) remains at the scene and brandishes what appears to be a 22 cal. carbine rifle with banana clip (ballistics testing pending to clarify weapon cal.). An officer gives a verbal command to drop the weapon immediately, after no response from the suspect, multiple shots are fired in an effort to incapacitate the threat to police. The weapon was recovered.

Continue reading "Man shot by officer has long record" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Breaking news, Police shootings, West Baltimore
        

A Baltimore police officer shot and critically wounded a man early today in Southwest Baltimore. Here are some initial details from city police spokesman Kevin Brown:

PRELIMINARILY:

Please be advised that at approximately 2:35 am this morning officers responded to a suspicious person call for service within the area of the intersection of Rokeby and Augusta Streets in the Southwest District. Officers engaged two armed suspects. During the course of the incident an officer fired upon and struck one of the suspects. He was transported to an area hospital and being treated (critical condition). The other suspect was also taken into custody. Sound will be given by the Director tomorrow morning at the BPD HQ Press Room at 10am.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Another Monday, another death toll to tally on the streets of Baltimore: 13 shot, three dead.

Concerned about the violence, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III ordered his commanders to the streets and saturated neighborhoods with cops. The shootings, including two by his officers, continued.

Here's the opening of Annie Linskey's story in this morning's paper. It reads much like the opening to the story in Sunday's paper, and in stories in papers from the past several weeks:

Baltimore endured a bloody Sunday morning with three people shot and a fourth killed within two hours, police said. Later in the day a police officer shot a man in the leg, the second police-involved shooting of the weekend.

That meant 13 people were shot over the weekend — three fatally. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III plans to meet with commanders Monday morning to assess their violence prevention strategy.

The commissioner had pumped up police presence in the city's Eastern District and other hot spots on Saturday, after a series of shootings left two men dead and five others wounded Friday night and early Saturday morning.

The extra shifts were called amid a budget crisis that has caused deep cuts to all city departments and forced the police to vastly decrease overtime. Police commanders, who are not paid for overtime, were also put on duty throughout the weekend.

Tonight at the Southeastern District police station, worried residents of Upper Fells Point, Butcher's Hill and Patterson Park are to meet with police to discuss a series of beatings in the area. In some instances, groups of teens and young adults have robbed and assaulted people near their homes. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Police shootings, Southeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police just sent out a Twitter message saying an officer has shot a man in the leg near Clifton Park, at the intersection of Belair Road and Erdman Ave. Details are scarce at the moment, but that would be the second police-involved shooting of the weekend. Police say no officers were harmed in tonight's incident.

Early Saturday, a 19-year-old man was shot three times by an officer after police say he pulled out a gun during a traffic stop near Gwynns Falls Park, police said. Ttwo officers from the Southwestern District were approaching the vehicle in the 1000 block of Ellamont Ave. about 1:30 a.m. to question three men when a passenger in the rear seat pulled out a gun. Both officers fired several shots at the vehicle in response, striking it as it sped away, police said.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Police shootings
        

A Baltimore police officer pleaded guilty in Circuit Court to shooting at a car after a dispute in Canton last year. Patrick A. Dotson, 28, is scheduled to be sentenced in September but he agreed as part of his plea deal to a 10 year prison term, with all but 18 months suspended.

Sun court reporter Tricia Bishop writes:

According to court records, Dotson was off duty in the early morning hours of March 9, 2009, when he and other officers got into a fight with bar patrons at Fins on the Square in the 2900 block of O'Donnell St. The brawl spilled onto the street, was broken up, then resumed a block away.

Dotson battled with Dustin Jackson, who later got into a car with a buddy and drove off. When Dotson saw them pass, he "produced a handgun and fired," said Assistant State's Attorney, David Grzechowiak. The car was struck near its gas tank.

His conviction comes on the heels of Baltimore Officer Gahiji Tshamba's indictment this month on murder and handgun charges connected to the off-duty killing of an unarmed man outside a Mount Vernon nightclub. Another Baltimore officer, Tommy Sanders III, was acquitted of manslaughter last month in the 2008 shooting death of an unarmed suspect who ran from him to evade arrest.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Police shootings, Southeast Baltimore
        

From the outset of Wednesday night's city council hearing on police internal discipline and the policy of requiring officers to carry their weapons while off duty, Councilman James Kraft made it clear that no one would be allowed to discuss specifics.

That meant no discussion of why Officer Gahiji Tshamba, charged with murder in an off-duty shooting outside a club, was lightly disciplined by a previous administration and remained on the job after he shot and struck a man while driving drunk in 2005.

What followed was an overly broad discussion of police policies and the department's efforts to curb bad behavior. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said he is not against making amends to the policy requiring officers to carry their weapons, but said no change would be made without careful deliberation.

"It's not that I'm intractable or I don't listen, but I want to be cautious and deliberative that we get it right and don't mess something up with unintended consequences," he told the councilmembers, noting that he ultimately reversed a decision to withhold the names of officers who shoot or kill citizens.

Robert F. Cherry of the city police union told councilmembers not to be swayed by furor over the Tshamba incident and that officers are expected to put themselves in danger and should be armed. He said a change in policy would "put officers in grave danger and by extension the citizens we are sworn to protect." 

Tyrone Powers, a former FBI agent and professor at Anne Arundel Community College, told the council that there should be a clear ban on officers carrying weapons while consuming alcohol. "There's no training that teaches you how to deal with alcohol and weapons. They never, ever mix," he said. He said officers who know they are going to be drinking or find themselves around alcohol must leave the gun at home or extract themselves from the situation. "That's the burden of policing."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: City Hall, Police shootings
        

City police have identified the officer who last week fired his weapon at a car that was driving away after ignoring a roadblock.

Officer Richard J. McCarthy, a 25-year veteran and member of the accident investigation unit, is on administrative suspension as homicide detectives investigate the Friday afternoon shooting. The victim, a 56-year-old man, was injured after the officer fired at his back window and he crashed his pickup truck into a wall on Falls Road.

Continue reading "Officer identified in shooting of vehicle from behind" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: North Baltimore, Police shootings
        

State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy held a press conference today to announce the indictment of Officer Gahiji Tshamba, charged in the off-duty shooting of a man outside a Mount Vernon nightclub. Former Marine Tyrone Brown was hit 12 times out of the 13 rounds discharged from Tshamba's weapon. Press conferences to announce indictments, which are typically only a formality in the process (Tshamba was charged last month and has been held without bond since then), are rare. Then again, this is a high profile case, and prosecutors were publicly criticized by police for moving too slow to charge, and there is that business about an election in the fall.

The Sun's Tricia Bishop was there and will be updating this story throughout the afternoon. Click on the "Tshamba" tag below or on the right hand rail to read related coverage on this case.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

A 56-year-old man who drove around a police roadblock was injured Friday after an officer shot at his back window, causing him to lose control of his pickup truck and crash off Interstate 83 in Hampden, police said.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said that he was concerned about the shooting and that investigators are trying to determine why the officer fired the shot after the vehicle was heading away from him.

The driver, who was not identified, was injured either by broken glass or bullet fragments, police said. His injuries were not deemed life-threatening.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Police shootings
        

The city Fraternal Order of Police union is a step closer to covering the legal costs for Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba, charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Tyrone Brown. The FOP's Judicial Review Committee voted unanimously to recommend to the full board of directors that the union support Tshamba with legal coverage, president Robert F. Cherry told me in a text.

This is notable as there were rumblings that the union was leaning toward not helping him in that area. But it's common for the union to help officers in legal troubles with representation and fees (the union also recently voted to cover costs for three officers charged with abducting a teen and leaving him in Howard County with no shoes or cell phone). Many officers choose to go with the union's preferred counsel. Tshamba has two attorneys, Adam Sean Cohen (who referred to himself as "The Prodigy" on his firm's Facebook page) and James Rhodes, as of the last we heard.

Tshamba remains held without bond after turning himself in early Sunday. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 13, though he will likely be indicted by a grand jury before then. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

Marines in dress uniform came out on Wednesday to pay tribute to their fallen comrade, Tyrone Brown, who was shot a dozen times any off-duty Baltimore police officer on June 5. The officer, Gahiji A. Tshamba, has been charged with first-degree murder.

The photos here are by The Sun's Lloyd Fox. At left, mourners gaze into the casket. Below, Curtis Warren, a friend of Tyrone's, plays a musical selection.

The funeral services at Morgan State University was filled with sorrowful remembrances. Baltimore Sun reporter Jean Marbella (her full story here), wrote this:

Among those who spoke at his funeral, held in an auditorium at the Murphy Fine Arts Center on the Morgan State University campus, were friends from Mr. Brown's rough East Baltimore neighborhood and his Marine unit — with both groups noting wearily how often they found themselves at funerals for someone whose life was cut too short. "We came through a neighborhood, [if] you get to 32, 34 [years old], you don't die like this," said Taavon Stewart, a friend. "We graduated from this."

Jean ended her moving piece this way:

Soon, it would be time for his fellow Marines, some dressed in the same uniform that Mr. Brown was buried in, to assemble for a final march. His former boss, Gunnery Sgt. Ken Johnson, told the crowd that he'd made sure Brown's ribbons and buttons were straight and that his brass shone because he would't let him check into heaven looking bad — although, being a Marine, he used a more colorful term.

"Marines never die, we merely go to heaven and regroup," Sergeant Johnson said to appreciative chuckles. "I do believe God prepares a special place for Marines."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

The Baltimore police homicide detective who led the investigation into the fatal shooting by an off-duty police officer of an unarmed man in Mount Vernon has his own strggles to deal with. His teen-aged son is battling cancer.

I first met Shawn M. Reichenberg Sr. back in 1997 (left) when he was out locking up armed robbery suspects and gunmen in Federal Hill after a rash of holdups in the upscale neighborhood. Little did I know I'd meet him again so many years later, at the heart of one of Baltimore's most controversial shootings.

I couldn't talk to him this week -- the department didn't want him to be interviewed in the midst of such a big case. The plight of his son has been well documented in local media in Anne Arundel County and on WJZ-TV.

Meanwhile, today is the funeral for the victim in the shooting. Tyrone Brown is to be remembered at a service at Morgan State University. We'll have much more on this story here and in the news section later today.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Police shootings
        

The head of Baltimore's NAACP sent out a missive demanding answers to questions revolving around the off-duty police shooting of an unarmed man in Mount Vernon. Marvin "Doc" Cheatham complained that a letter sent to Baltimore's police commissioner, the mayor and others went unanswered.

City police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told me this morning that he got in contact with Cheatham to let him known Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is on vacation and would respond when he returns. Meanwhile, Guglielmi said he's trying to answer as many questions as he can but most revolve around policy issues that would have to be reviewed.

The NAACP head wants to know whether the officer charged, Gahiji A. Tshamba, gets more protection in shootings like these than afforded other suspects. The officer was not arrested immediately after the shooting, refused to make statements or submit to a breath test to see if he had been drinking and was given the chance to turn himself in when a warrant charging him with first-degree murder was issued. The officer surrendered after a 30-hour manhunt.

Here are Cheatham's concerns:

Continue reading "Police to respond to NAACP concerns" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings, Top brass
        

One of the suspects arrested in the fatal shooting of Maryland State Police Trooper Wesley Brown is a parolee with a long criminal record. The Washington Post details the case and notes that the main suspect had once been the state's list of most closely watched offenders.

Cyril Cornelius Williams, 27, is charged as the person who pulled the trigger after getting angry the off-duty trooper had tossed him an Applebee's restaurant in Prince George's County because he had not paid his bill.

Because of his record, The Post reports that Williams had been on the state parole and probation department's Violence Prevention Initiative, in which the most violent offenders are closely watched while free from prison on parole or probation. The idea is that any misstep -- such as missing a meeting or a drug test -- can land the person back in prison.

But the newspaper says Williams was taken off that strict supervision list in December because he had adhered to the rules and kept a job. So when he missed a meeting with his parole agent in March, it was no longer a violationt that would trigger a warrant, the Post wrote.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Police shootings
        

The Baltimore police officer charged with first-degree murder in the off-duty shooting an unarmed man outside a Mount Vernon club was ordered held without bond Monday morning as his attorney began hitting back at the accusations, saying the officer "did what he had to do."

Addressing the incident for the first time, a defense attorney for Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba, 36, described his client as a decorated veteran who has been devastated by the allegations. He said the June 5 killing of Tyrone Brown came after the officer put himself on duty to respond to a sexual assault.

Brown, a 32-year-old former Marine from East Baltimore, was shot 12 times after Tshamba fired 13 rounds from his service weapon, according to charging documents. Police have previously said Brown was struck nine times.

"A police officer in fear for his life has to do what he has to do," attorney Adam Sean Cohen told reporters outside Central Booking. "If one shot doesn't work, if two shots don't work … you fire until the threat is gone."

Prosecutor David Chiu called Tshamba an "extreme risk to public safety."

"The last time I checked, I don't believe its police policy to shoot an unarmed suspect, particularly surrounded by patrons leaving a bar area," Chiu said.

For more, click the link. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Breaking news, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

Police charging documents have now been released in the murder case against Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba (left), who is charged in the shooting death of an unarmed former Marine in Mount Vernon nine days ago.

The information in the document is sparse. Top police commanders have already said that the victim, Tyrone Brown, had his hands in the air when he was shot by the officer who was angry that the man patted the rear-end of a female companion. Police have also said there is no evidence that the off-duty officer feared for his life when he opened fire.

This is is one of the few cases when police leaked more details about their case than they put the official document that charges the officer with first-degree murder. The union president, Robert Cherry, has denounced the leaks from police and the Baltimore Sun's articles that he said has already convicted the officer.

There is one important detail change that shows up in the charging document: It says Brown was struck 12 times. We had known from the start that the officer emptied his clip of 13 bullets (it holds 14, but he had loaded it with one shy of full clip). At the very beginnging, police said Brown was hit six times. After a preliminary autopsy, they said he had been hit nine times. Now police say he was shot a dozen times.

Meanwhile, Tshamba is due in court for a bail hearing this morning. We may hear more from his attorney. Here is the police charging document:

Continue reading "Court papers in officer shooting released" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings, Top brass