Julie Bykowicz
The Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE, Md. — Baltimore police officers shot two men — one of them fatally — yesterday after responding to separate domestic disputes.
The Police Department did not release the name of either man or either officer involved, but a police spokesman said the officers have been placed on administrative duties pending an investigation.
The fatal shooting occurred just before noon in West Baltimore, said Officer Troy Harris, the police spokesman.
Officers had been called to a house in the 2500 block of Lauretta Ave. for a family dispute, Harris said, and when they arrived, a woman ran outside shouting, “He has a knife!”
After escorting the woman and other family members to safety, officers went inside the house, where they found a man in the kitchen holding a knife to his brother’s throat, Harris said.
Officers repeatedly told the man to drop the knife, but he refused, Harris said. As the man started to make stabbing motions, an officer fired several shots.
The man was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead, Harris said. His brother was taken to a hospital, where he was being treated for cuts and other injuries. No officers were injured.
Earlier yesterday, an officer-involved shooting followed two reports of domestic assault between a man and his former girlfriend in the 1800 block of Ramsay St. in Southwest Baltimore, Harris said.
The man, whom Harris described as having “a long history of assaulting his ex-girlfriend,” was fighting with the woman in an upstairs bedroom when police arrived about 3:30 a.m. for the second time overnight.
When the man saw the officers, he smashed a window and armed himself with a piece of glass, Harris said.
Officers told the man to drop the glass, but he refused to do so, Harris said. An officer then fired at him, striking the man once in the chest and once in the abdomen.
The man jumped out of the second-story window and ran a few blocks before being arrested, Harris said.
He was in serious but stable condition yesterday afternoon at Shock Trauma, Harris said. The woman was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital. No officers were injured.
Copyright 2007 The Baltimore Sun Company