Police Help Purported Tipster Move From Home
WBAL
BALTIMORE -- Just days after Baltimore police Officer Brian Winder was laid to rest, the man who claims he helped lead police to Winder’s alleged killer is fighting for a reward, WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Deborah Weiner reported.
It is rare for the police department to offer rewards for information, but it did when Winder (pictured, right) was killed.
Now, a man who believes his own life is at risk demands that reward money for turning in a fugitive, Weiner said.
Last week, an anonymous phone call brought police to the Relax Inn on Reisterstown Road, where suspect Charles Bennett (pictured, below left) took his own life after police surrounded the building.
The informant said he saw Bennett transform, cutting his hair and changing his clothes.
“When I saw his picture on the news, I said, ‘Oh my God, it’s him,’ ” the man said.
Calling himself “John Doe,” the purported informant told Weiner he is on the run after neighbors saw police at his home.
“At this point, I feel like I’m the victim. I have to hide not from police, but from people,” the informant (pictured, right during a news conference) said.
He said he wants the $35,000 reward money for turning in a fugitive.
But the informant’s request is not going over well at the police department.
“This hardly honors the Brian Winder’s memory by having public press conferences to get the reward, but if he wants to do that, that’s what he’s entitled to,” police spokesman Matt Jablow said.
The group Metro Crime Stoppers, which regularly offers rewards, takes at least three months to pay out.
But the informant’s attorney, David Ellin, said this case is different.
“The person is dead, No. 1, and secondly, my client is in fear of his life and needs the money for survival,” Ellin said.
“It appears that this man is in line for the reward, but there’s a lot of investigating to do into this entire case from the night that Officer Winder was murdered to the night that Charles Bennett killed himself,” Jablow said.
Police helped to relocate the informant Wednesday morning, but he is still clearly terrified, Weiner reported.