Baltimore city officer fatally shoots man who police say was attacking woman on street corner

City police are investigating a fatal shooting by an officer that occurred Sunday afternoon in West Baltimore.

Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said officers were called for a report of a man armed with a knife assaulting a woman around 3:30 p.m. at the intersection of North Fulton and West Lafayette Avenues.

Harrison said police body camera footage and cell phone video show an officer order the suspect to the ground, and that he then “placed himself on top of the female while armed with a very large knife.”

An officer shot at the man, who then “rolled over and disengaged from the female still armed with the knife,” Harrison told reporters Sunday evening.

A cell phone video that is apparently of the incident was posted on Instagram. Taken from up the block, it appears to show a man on the ground assaulting a woman, who can be heard screaming. Someone can be heard saying, “They need to lock his ass up, he gotta go.” After a police vehicle pulls up to the scene, two officers emerge, the man gets down on the ground near the woman and the officer opens fire. Thirteen shots can be heard on the cell phone video posted to social media.

Harrison declined comment on the number of shots fired.

“What I can say is that it’s under investigation. The investigation will produce a finding. And so it would be improper and inappropriate for me to comment on that. What I can tell you is that the officer was exiting his vehicle … He observed what he believed was a person in distress, responded to it, and began to fire his weapon. We know he fired multiple times.”

Harrison said officers rendered aid and the man was pronounced dead at a hospital. He was not identified.

The woman was not stabbed nor hit by any gunshots, Harrison said.

Mayor Brandon Scott, who also appeared at the news briefing, said the officers “acted quickly to come to the aid of this woman who was clearly in distress.”

“We could be talking about a woman who lost her life,” Scott said.

It was the second time this year that city police have shot someone. At this time last year, police had shot six people.

The shooting is being investigated by city police and the Attorney General’s Office, and city prosecutors will determine if criminal charges are warranted. The other police shooting, which occurred in February, is still an open investigation.

Kimberly Love, a West Baltimore resident who lives near the shooting scene, said she was familiar with the shooting victim. She said she was distressed by all of the violence in the city.

“We don’t feel safe,” she said. “I wish the shooting would stop. For those believers and non-believers pray for this violence to stop.”

justin.fenton@thebaltimorebanner.com

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