A 17-year-old shot by a Baltimore City police officer while running away with a gun in Shipley Hill has been charged with first- and second-degree assault, among other charges, and is being held without bail, according to a spokesperson for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.

The teen faces nine charges, the office’s spokesperson, Melissa Rothstein, said. Among them are multiple gun charges, including handgun on person, illegal possession of ammunition and reckless endangerment.

The Baltimore Banner is no longer naming the teen because a determination has not yet been made on whether the matter should be adjudicated in the juvenile justice system, which would result in the case and his identity being permanently sealed.

On May 11, Detective Cedric Elleby fired four shots at the 17 year-old and struck him once, police said. Body-worn camera footage released to the public shows Elleby shooting at the teen’s back as he runs away with a gun.

Before the foot pursuit began, Elleby was sitting on a stoop beside the teen, the footage shows. As the teen walked away slowly with another person, Elleby got up to follow them. After the teen and the other person stopped, Elleby told the teen to “come here,” and appeared to attempt to grab him. Then the teen started to run — down several alleys, onto Frederick Avenue and up South Catherine Street.

At one point, police said the teen reached into his waistband for a gun, which he appears to hold in his right hand while running. In an edited version of the video, police placed circles around the moment they say he pulled out the gun.

“Stop, stop, stop,” Elleby can be heard shouting. “Put the gun down, put the gun down,” he said as the teen continued to run. He then fired just after they turned onto South Catherine Street.

Elleby, who has been with the department since June 2019, has been assigned to administrative duties, police said.

The teen was initially listed in critical condition and was in surgery for five hours, his mother, Kieria Franklin, said. His spleen and left kidney were removed, as was a piece of his liver. His left lung was completely collapsed and doctors had to repair it, she said.

The teen was released from the hospital on Friday, his mother told The Banner in an interview Tuesday evening. He had been handcuffed to his hospital bed for 15 days, she said.

On Friday, he had a drain removed from his body, she said, and a few hours later was taken to the Baltimore Central Booking & Intake Center.

The teen called his mother around 7:45 p.m. that night. The conversation was horrible, she said, fighting back tears.

“Mom, they locking me up,” he told her. She had not been previously informed by police that he had been released from the hospital, she said.

He told her he was having shortness of breath and that he was in pain, she said.

“I just want to go back to the hospital, I don’t feel good,” his mother said her son told her. He told her he was still bleeding, she said.

The mother said Tuesday she is angry about the charges filed against her son, calling them “far-fetched.”

“I believe they did my son wrong. I believe that they showed no mercy,” she said.

She said she is especially confused about the assault charges. Her son never turned around, she said, never pointed the gun at the officer and wasn’t running toward an area with a lot of people. “My son was running for his life. He was scared,” she said. “How do you have first-degree assault?”

In a statement, Robert Linthicum, chief of the Youthful Defendant Unit at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and the teen’s lawyer, said: “Police shootings warrant significant attention, especially where a child ends up in the hospital. The charges here do not fully align with the allegations and could be an effort to avoid or minimize scrutiny of the officers’ actions.”

Franklin said Elleby had been harassing her son for four days before the shooting. The day before the shooting, she said, the officer had followed her son and nephew as they walked around in the Westside Shopping Center. The officer repeatedly asked them to tell him about crime in the community, she said. Franklin provided The Banner a nearly minute-long video she said was taken by her nephew showing the officer following him on foot.

Asked at a press briefing about allegations from community members that Elleby had harassed them, Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said police hadn’t received any prior complaints about Elleby.

“He’s not being treated fairly,” Franklin’s mother said of her son Tuesday. “He’s not.”

The story has been updated to remove the teen's name.

cadence.quaranta@thebaltimorebanner.com