:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/UJV5NXONLNBPHJCWK2G2EYRYQM.jpg)
Baltimore Police officers shot a naked man Saturday morning after he charged them while wielding two large knives, Police Commissioner Richard Worley said.
The 36-year-old man is in stable condition at an area hospital; police on Saturday afternoon did not identify the man or the officers who chased and later shot him.
Sometime around 9 a.m., officers doing routine patrol in the 2000 block of West Pratt Street came across a naked man experiencing some sort of mental health crisis, Worley said. The officers went to speak to the man, and he ran inside a corner store on West Pratt Street and barricaded himself in a back room.
The officers went in the store to talk to the man and convince him to come out, Worley said, when he threw some sort of liquid on them.
The man went up some stairs in the back of the store (the store is in a three-story building) and the officers tried again to talk to the man. This time, Worley said, the man appeared with two big knives — one of them was like a “sword” or a “machete” — and charged at the officers. One officer was cut in the face, it’s not clear whether the man slashed the cop or if he threw the knife, and then at least one officer shot at the man, striking him in the leg. It’s not clear whether both officers fired and how many times.
Once the man was shot, the officers were able to subdue him, and Worley said they immediately started helping him and applied a tourniquet to help stem the bleeding.
“Probably saved his life,” Worley said.
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/LSLZRYTGNBDPPEXLRV5TM4UK7U.jpg)
City and police officials reviewed the body-worn camera footage of the shooting and the police commissioner said from what he could tell the officers did what they were supposed to do. The footage will be made available to the public sometime in the near future, according to police department policy.
“This was a very intense situation,” Worley said at a news conference a block from where the shooting took place. “Once you see the body-worn camera you’ll see how intense, and you’ll see how great of a job our officers did yet again, not only in trying to disarm the individual but, once he was injured, rendering aid and possibly saving his life.”
Worley added that he wanted to “commend” the officers for their actions.
In addition to the shooting, police were examining some “devices” in the room the man was in, officials said. The department’s bomb squad, along with the Baltimore City Fire Department, were called to the shooting scene and remained there for some hours.
It’s not clear whether the devices were bombs — Worley said they were handmade and that the bomb squad was checking them out to determine if they were dangerous.
“We don’t know exactly what he was planning on doing but it looks like the officers intervened on something that could have been much worse,” Worley said.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/baltimorebanner/ad5cdd7c-be88-440d-966d-fa131d0cfc36.png)
Lee O. Sanderlin is an Enterprise Reporter for The Baltimore Banner. Before joining The Banner, he worked at The Baltimore Sun as a reporter covering a wide array of topics, including stories about abusive politicians, sexual abuse, gun violence and legislative issues.
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/GTCCVJZJVNETVJQAABDIYOSCW4.JPG)
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/C5RNK4UYEZHJ5KRAE5TAXBVZEM.jpg)
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/SAIF3W6YERGZFPARMH64PQNMEM.jpg)
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/XQSZB3ZBDNC5REANQW2HY7RPHI.jpg)