Donta Robinson and Jamal Carter had just parked their car in West Forest Park when a man with a gun came up and yelled, "Get down."
The gunman took Robinson's wallet and keys, and drove away with his 2005 Mercury.
Robinson rushed to a neighbor's house and called the police. Officers found Robinson's car a few blocks away, but they didn't find a suspect. They also didn't take a report, dismissing the complaint as unfounded.
That was Jan. 5.
Four days later, police believe, the same gunman killed Officer Troy Chesley in a shootout that took place blocks away from the carjacking.
Brandon Grimes, 22, has been charged with the Jan. 5 carjacking and the Jan. 9 slaying of Chesley. The link between the two cases was first reported this week by WBAL-TV.
In the aftermath of Chesley's death, some in the department have pointed to the failure to report the carjacking as a missed opportunity to catch Grimes. Paul Blair, the police union president, said that this incident was the result of pressure officers feel to downgrade crime.
Sterling Clifford, a police spokesman, said commanders do not want crimes to be downgraded and said he doesn't believe the officers who investigated the Jan. 5 carjacking did anything improper.
"The officers made a determination based on what they saw in front of them, that the report [of a carjacking] was unfounded," Clifford said. "Officers on the scene did what they could with the information they had. Later on we got more information and the report changed."
The carjacking was uncovered when Detective Richard Purtell, a homicide detective investigating Chesley's death, was re-examining evidence and came across a wallet with Donta Robinson's credit card and driver's license from the van allegedly used as the getaway car for the suspect in Chesley's shooting.
Detectives reached out to Robinson, looking into the possibility that he was another Grimes victim, according to a homicide report. They discovered that there were three unauthorized charges on Robinson's credit card and that his friend, Jamal Carter, had been pistol-whipped during the carjacking.
On Jan 31, Robinson went to the fifth floor of police headquarters and sat for a taped interview with homicide detectives, where he painted a scenario that is eerily similar to the one that unfolded when Chesley was killed.
Robinson was carjacked on the 4200 block of Bonner Road, and Chesley was killed on the 4500 block of Fairfax Road.
