The video below contains disturbing audio of the gunfire exchange that ended in the tragic deaths of two Md. officers, as well as video of police responding to the scene. As such, be advised that this footage may be upsetting to some viewers.
The decision to run news like the below is not one we take lightly, and we do so because we believe it has value to our law enforcement audience in capturing the sort of situation law enforcers hope never to face. We feel it is important even as it is difficult to observe.
The death of a police officer is felt by the entire LE community and can take a heavy toll. Take a look at our articles on how critical incident stress debriefing teams help cops in crisis, 6 proactive steps to maintaining officers’ mental health and coping with line-of-duty death in law enforcement.
By Sean Welsh
The Baltimore Sun
ABINGDON, Md. — The Harford County Sheriff’s Office, in response to a Baltimore Sun inquiry, released additional dashcam video footage Tuesday, revealing powerful audio but little new information in the fatal shootings of two uniformed deputies in February.
Authorities say David Evans, 68, fatally shot Harford County Sheriff’s deputies Patrick Dailey, 52, and Mark Logsdon, 43, at a Panera Bread restaurant and nearby apartment complex in Abingdon before being killed by two deputies who returned gunfire. The event occurred on Feb. 10, 2016.
The Sun requested information, data and recordings from the incident in the days following. The county released audio recordings from dispatchers and first-responders last month as it wrapped its internal investigation.
On Tuesday, police released two dashcam videos to the media. One shows a deputy speeding down Route 24, turning onto Emmorton Road and into the parking lot where the Panera Bread restaurant is located. The other shows a deputy taking the same route, parking briefly at the Panera, before then going to the apartment complex where deputies exchanged fire with Evans.
That exchange of gunfire is captured in the audio recording from the cameras. The dashcam is not oriented in a way to have captured the shooting scene, but it does show first responders rushing to the scene after the barrage of gunshots.
The deputies, a 30-year veteran and a 16-year veteran, were shot to death in the line of duty by a man that Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said was intent on hurting someone, most likely his ex-wife and his family he had been tracking over the previous several months.
“We’ll never know. But we believe his intention was to take some sort of action against her and his family,” Gahler said.
On Wednesday, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office released a statement from Gahler criticizing the media for publishing the dashcam video footage.
Copyright 2016 The Baltimore Sun