Corrections Officer Fatally Shot

A corrections officer was found fatally shot behind the wheel of a sport utility vehicle early Thursday in East Baltimore, according to police.

The woman, identified as 37-year-old Erica Yolanda Carr, was found about 6:30 a.m. in the driver's seat of a Ford Explorer in the 1400 block of Kenhill Ave., police said. Officers responded to the area for a report of shots fired and canvassed the area, adjacent to the parking lot for Fort Worthington Elementary School in the Berea neighborhood, and later discovered Carr in the vehicle.

Police said Carr, a resident of Middle River, suffered at least three gunshot wounds to the arm, neck and head, fired at close range. She was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital and pronounced dead shortly after arrival. Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman, said police did not have any suspects or know of a motive.

Rick Binetti, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, confirmed that Carr was a corrections officer at the Baltimore City Detention Center, assigned to the area of the jail that houses women.

She had been employed by the state as a corrections officer for more than four years, Binetti said.

Attempts to reach Carr's family were unsuccessful. Records show that since 2007 she had lived in a townhouse in Middle River near Dark Head Creek Park. No one answered the door at her home Thursday, but neighbors said she had two children.

Officials with the Maryland Division of Pretrial Detention and Services spoke with Carr's family and had grief counselors standing by to assist co-workers.

The division was working with police in the investigation.