Police Shooting

A 52-year-old South Baltimore man, who was shot by police after pointing a pellet gun at officers, died from his injuries, officials said. Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman, said officers were called to the 3600 block of St. Victor Street before 9 p.m. for a report of an armed person. When they got there, the man, who was holding what turned out to be a pellet gun, refused to drop the weapon and was shot when he turned toward the officers. He was taken to a local hospital, where he later was pronounced dead.

One man was killed and two were injured in a shootout that involved police in West Baltimore on Monday night, though details on what led to the shooting were still being determined Tuesday morning. Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts spoke near the scene of the shooting, which happened about 10 p.m. in the 2700 block of Edmondson Avenue, a busy commercial corridor. He said police on foot patrol came upon multiple men who were inside a car firing weapons in a "particular direction" and police then opened fire on them.

A man was shot and wounded by a Baltimore Police officer in West Baltimore Tuesday morning. Lt. Col. Garnell Green, the commander of the homicide section, said police were called to the 1200 block of Oakhurst Place, in the Southwestern Police district, at about 9 a.m. for a report of a “man suffering from a mental illness armed with a weapon.” Green said the officer discharged his weapon, but the victim's injuries were initially unclear....

Baltimore police shot a man Thursday night in a quiet neighborhood near the Baltimore County line after they found him firing weapons in the backyard of a house, police said. The man, whom police did not identify, was taken to a local hospital, and police had no information on his condition late Thursday night. No officers were hurt, police said. Sgt. Eric Kowalczyk, a police spokesman, said police were called to the 6700 block of Danville Avenue, which is off Dundalk Avenue, about 8:30 p.m. for reports of gunfire.

An independent commission reviewing January's fatal police shooting outside the Select Lounge found that supervisors failed to take control of a chaotic scene, with Officer William H. Torbit Jr. making a series of missteps that exacerbated the situation and contributed to his own death. Those conclusions were among 33 sweeping recommendations made by the panel, appointed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to examine the circumstances surrounding a shooting that left two dead and four wounded - the Baltimore Police Department's first incident of on-duty, fatal friendly fire in 80 years.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has selected a panel of law enforcement experts, including two respected former police chiefs and a former U.S. attorney for Maryland, to review last month's police shooting outside a Baltimore club that killed a veteran officer and a 22-year-old man. 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...

The Baltimore Police Department on Wednesday released surveillance camera footage of the January police shooting outside a downtown club that killed two people, including a plainclothes officer. The video shows that the incident lasted mere seconds. The fracas appears to begin with a man throwing a punch, and within about eight seconds a crowd is seen dispersing in different directions from the Select Lounge parking lot. A young woman lies on the ground, struck by an errant bullet, while a man stumbles and falls to the ground and crawls behind a car. The camera pans away as an officer fires several shots — with puffs of smoke from the bullets hitting the ground — then pans back to reveal Officer William H. Torbit Jr. lying on the ground.

Baltimore homicide detectives have completed an initial inquiry into Saturday's fatal shooting by an off-duty police officer of an unarmed man outside a Mount Vernon nightclub, and a decision on criminal charges rests with prosecutors who plan to repeat interviews with key witnesses over several days. Police said they have focused on seven people who viewed the altercation between Tyrone Brown, a 32-year-old former Marine who served in Iraq, and Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba. Those witnesses, they said, are not connected to the victim or the officer, who was allegedly angered after Brown touched the behind of Tshamba's female companion as two groups of friends gathered near an entrance to a club.

A Crisfield police officer has been placed on administrative leave while state police investigate a shooting of a motorist in the Somerset County town Saturday night.Crisfield Police Chief Clarence Bell said the shooting occurred after Officer Brent Conner acted to stop a car with a malfunctioning headlight at 9:30 p.m.The car did not stop at first, the chief reported. When it did, it backed into the cruiser driven by Officer Conner, the chief said.The car's driver, Mack Merrill, 20, allegedly ran into a wooded area between two houses where the officer chased him before the shooting occurred, police said.

A lawyer hired by one of the women wounded during a police shooting that left an officer and another man dead said his client was struck in the head, disputing accounts from authorities that the three surviving victims were struck only in their extremities. The woman, Jasmine Graves, 22, was not seriously injured, said attorney Michael A. Pulver. He said the bullet did not penetrate her skull, indicating that it may have been a graze wound. Still, the discrepancy adds further confusion to a complicated case still being sorted out by homicide detectives.

The accidental shooting of a University of Maryland police officer trainee in a an exercise is a public relations disaster that Baltimore's mayor and police commissioner wish were just a bad dream ("Campus officer shot in training," Feb. 13). Everyone is asking how this incident that reeks of a Keystone Cops caper could have occurred. But sadly, it's no laughing matter. Apparently the proper authorities were not notified that the training sessions were being conducted at the former Rosewood facility.

A man was shot in the arm Wednesday in what Baltimore police said appeared to be a brazen robbery attempt outside a city parole and probation office. Police said the shooting was unrelated to the Guilford Avenue Field Office and Region II Regional Office of the state Department of Corrections. It occurred across the street, in an alley just off the 2100 block of Guilford Avenue, Baltimore police spokesman Sgt. Eric Kowalczyk said. Sometime before 1:15 p.m., a suspect fired a gun, striking the victim, who ran onto the probation office property, police spokesman Detective Vernon Davis said.

Police shot a man in Northwest Baltimore Tuesday in the third such incident since Friday, and are still searching for a potential victim they say the man may have shot earlier. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said police were checking license plates in the area near the 5000 block of Pimlico Road in the Central Park Heights neighborhood, as police had recently pinpointed the neighborhood "as an area of concern for us. " About 7 p.m., police heard gunshots and saw a man leaving an alley holding a semiautomatic handgun, Guglielmi said.

A Baltimore police officer shot a man in West Baltimore on Monday evening and the man is in serious condition at an area hospital, police said. About 6:30 p.m., police spotted a man coming out of a home near the intersection of Edmondson Avenue and Hilton Street who appeared to be concealing a gun, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. The man jumped into a sedan and started driving his car in the direction of police when an officer shot him, Guglielmi said. The man continued to drive until he stopped or crashed a few blocks later, in the 800 block of North Longwood Street, near Leakin Park.

Baltimore police on Monday charged a 37-year-old man in connection to a police-involved shooting over the weekend that left two wounded. Police said Theodore Smith, who lives on the 500 block of Rossiter Ave. in the Wiinston-Govans neighborhood, fought with an officer who was trying to clear a crowd outside a Homeland neighborhood take-out business early Sunday. The officer moved to disperse the crowd that had gathered in the 5400 block of York Road when he got into a physical struggle with Smith, who refused to show identification, police Det. Jeremy Silbert said.

A Baltimore police officer shot a man during a foot chase Wednesday, marking the second time in two days that a Northeast district officer fired a gun while in pursuit of a suspect. Just one person was injured in the separate shootings — the man shot Wednesday was struck in the hand. He was being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital. A foot chase Tuesday in the Frankford and Cedonia neighborhoods ended with an officer shooting and killing a dog. In Wednesday's shooting, police said a man flashed a gun while being chased.

When it happens — and relatives say it's rare for Franklin Williams to have a schizophrenic episode — he first starts to drink an inordinate amount of water. He takes baths and smokes cigarettes, anything to calm himself and quiet the voices in his head. Williams' family said that scenario was playing out last Sunday night when they called police to their Southwest Baltimore home, hoping he could be taken to a hospital for mental health treatment. Instead, the 37-year-old was taken for treatment of multiple gunshot wounds after police say he refused to drop a knife.

Police in Carroll County on Tuesday evening fatally shot a man who is said to have approached an officer wielding a hammer, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. Taneytown Police Chief William Tyler said in a prepared statement that officers responded to an incident shortly after 8:30 p.m., on Commerce Drive, after receiving a 911 call. The callers reported that their son had been drinking and acting erratically. The caller's father said that his son was smashing the windows of his truck with a hammer.

A man shot in south Baltimore Saturday night is expected to survive, authorities said. Police spokeswoman Det. Angela Carter-Watson said detectives night were investigating the non-fatal shooting in 1000 block of Leadenhall St., which is a few blocks from M&T Bank Stadium and west of Federal Hill. No further information was immediately available. ecox@baltsun.com