Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley apologized Wednesday for comments last week in which he said the public wasn’t alerted to a brutal attack in West Baltimore for reasons that would disparage the victims.

“I misspoke. The last thing I want to do is blame the victim,” Worley said. “No victim is ever at fault for a crime committed against them, especially this individual. This individual committed a heinous act and I apologize to the victims everywhere if I offended them because that’s exactly the opposite of what I want to do.”

The comments had sparked criticism that police had reacted differently to the two crimes, one of which involved a high-profile victim in a more affluent part of the city, the other involving Black victims in an area that deals regularly with violent crime.

Police publicly announced last week that they were searching for 32-year-old Jason Billingsley in connection with the killing in Mount Vernon of tech CEO Pava LaPere, and said he was considered dangerous and linked to another crime.

But he refused to say what that crime was, and it was later revealed that police had been looking for Billingsley for a week, after obtaining a warrant in the rape and arson involving two victims in a West Baltimore rowhome. A female victim’s throat was cut and she and a male victim were set on fire. When police released information about the crime, they referred to it only as an arson with injuries and would not answer further questions.

Though detectives quickly obtained a warrant for Billingsley, Worley said that police did not publicize his name or image because they deemed the incident to be targeted. He provided no evidence for the claim, saying he did not want to disparage the victims. One of the victims told The Baltimore Banner there was no connection between them and Billingsley other than that he was the maintenance man for the building where the attack occurred.

Worley also said police did not want to alert Billingsley that they were looking for him in that case and needed to protect the victims from retaliation.

Worley said he was not initially alerted about the rape and arson — it’s not clear when he did learn about it — but Scott told reporters that “we now have talked with the commissioner about making sure that when significant incidents like something like a rape and arson, that that will be bumped up to his level.”

“We’re always going to make sure that we are pushing things out to make sure that we bring these individuals in, and will we make sure to have that focus continuously as we move forward,” Scott said.

City Councilman Eric Costello said Monday that Worley had apologized in a meeting ahead of his City Council confirmation, but Wednesday’s appearance alongside Mayor Brandon Scott was his first public admission.

Worley was confirmed for the police commissioner position by the City Council on Monday, with only one member voting no. But Costello, along with Councilman Kristerfer Burnett, took him to task for the comments.

Costello said the way the department handled the incidents created an appearance of disparate concern that was “intolerable” and that the “perception of victim blaming” was “equally if not more appalling.”

“If BPD produces this type of performance again, with what happened in the past two weeks, I will not hesitate to call for his resignation publicly,” Costello said.

The Baltimore chapter of the NAACP had also urged the council not to confirm Worley based on the handling of the Billingsley case, as well as the failures at Brooklyn Homes.

Banner reporter Adam Willis contributed to this article.

justin.fenton@thebaltimorebanner.com