By Dan Belson
Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE, Md. — Police released body camera footage showing a Southeast Baltimore encounter last month that ended with officers fatally shooting a man on an Interstate 95 on-ramp.
The footage, released following a Thursday news conference, shows Baltimore Police pursuing Jamarl Muse, 40, on Eastern Avenue on Jan. 20 and attempting to take him into custody before his gun fires. Two officers, identified as Sgt. Carlos Arias and Officer Edwin Ruiz, then fired at Muse, who died at the scene.
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“What you’re going to see in this video could have been completely avoided had the suspect just complied with the demands of the officers,” Police Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters on Thursday, before showing the footage. The Maryland attorney general’s office is investigating the matter alongside the department. The office’s Independent Investigations Division probes all fatal civilian encounters with police in Maryland.
Deputy Police Commissioner Brian Nadeau said the fatal encounter stemmed from a “dispute at a residence” in the nearby Eastwood neighborhood. A woman was trying to get her daughter and her daughter’s husband out of a house on the 6800 block of Bank Street, and Muse “pulled out a firearm on them to get them to leave the residence,” Nadeau said. They then called the police, and Muse fled on his bike. His relationship to anyone in the home is unclear.
The footage shows Officer Jhosean Ramos Cortes pursuing Muse and locating him, still on the bike, in front of a McDonald’s restaurant on the 6500 block of Eastern Avenue . Police pursue him down a nearby ramp leading to I-95 North. Frias then pulls Muse off the bike and attempts to take him into custody.
“What’d I do?” Muse asks.
“Stop,” Frias said, repeatedly, while taking Muse to the ground.
“No, get off of me,” he responds.
Frias said that he has Muse’s hand. Then, a loud “bang” is heard as a flash lights up the grassy area next to the on-ramp.
Frias and Ruiz then fire at Muse and back away. Police would later recover a Taurus revolver.
“It’s very hard to accidentally shoot off a revolver,” Nadeau said. He said that the gun was not in “a position where it could have accidentally gone off unless he actually pulled the trigger.”
The shooting happened one day after police shot a woman at a Bolton Hill apartment complex as she appeared to be experiencing a mental health crisis and threatened officers with a knife. The woman, as well as another man shot by Baltimore Police on Jan. 7 during a traffic stop in Mount Vernon, survived.
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