Three people were slain early today and last night in the city. One of them was shot by an undercover narcotics officer in East Baltimore.
Also early today, Baltimore County police in Essex found the body of a man who may have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In the city's Pimlico section, the body of a cab driver was found inside a taxi in the 2900 block of W. Belvedere Ave., police said. The apparent robbery victim had been stabbed several times, police said.
Police said a man was seen running from the cab about 2:45 a.m., carrying what appeared to be the cabbie's money bag.
The Diamond Cab driver apparently lost control of his vehicle during the attack and the taxi drifted several feet, coming to rest against the curb on the north side of the 2900 block of W. Belvedere Ave. near the fence that surrounds Pimlico Race Course.
The name of the cabbie was being withheld pending notification of his family, police said.
In East Baltimore around 10 p.m., undercover narcotics officers driving in the 1600 block of N. Durham St. noticed several males in an alley, apparently conducting a drug deal, police said.
Lt. Robert Stanton of the homicide squad said that when the men spotted the unmarked police car they bolted into the rear of a Durham Street house. The officers got out of the car and gave chase, Stanton said.
Stanton said Officer Gerald Hensley, 29, of the Eastern District's drug enforcement unit, was standing outside the back of the house when he saw a man standing in the kitchen holding a handgun.
"The man was illuminated by a kitchen light and it was easy to see he was armed," said Stanton.
Hensley warned his fellow officers that the man had a gun and ran to the front of the house in time to see a man flee the dwelling and run down the street, Stanton said. That man remains at large.
Turning back toward the house, Hensley reported he saw a second armed man standing in the front doorway.
Stanton said Hensley ordered the man to "freeze," but the man refused to drop the gun.
The gunman turned as though to shoot Hensley, Stanton said, but Hensley fired two shots from his 9mm handgun, striking the man in the right chest and right side.
The man, who so far remains unidentified, died shortly before midnight at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Stanton said.
The gun turned out to be a Tech-9 9mm semiautomatic with 22 rounds in the clip and one in the chamber, Stanton said.
