- Baltimore police shot a man in the leg Saturday morning after he charged him with a machete-like weapon and another knife.
- The man, who will remain anonymous, was later listed in stable condition at a local hospital, Baltimore Police Chief Richard Worley said.
- The department has activated its serious incident reporting policy, which typically includes releasing body camera video within a few days.
Baltimore police shot a man in the leg Saturday morning after he charged him with a machete-like weapon and another knife, officials said.
The man was taken to a local hospital in stable condition several hours later, Baltimore Police Chief Richard Worley said in a news conference at the scene.
Worley said the officer was on routine patrol in a southwest Baltimore neighborhood when he encountered a naked man walking down the street. Worley said the man, whose name has not been released, ran into a nearby store and barricaded himself in a back room.
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He said the man threw an unidentified liquid at police when they first tried to enter the building, and then lunged at them during their second attempt. Worley said police fired at least one shot after the officer was cut in the face. The officer's injuries were minor.
Authorities found a “homemade device” in the apartment above the store where the man lived and are processing it. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Police Department)
Worley said authorities were still processing a “homemade device” found in the apartment above the store where the man was believed to have lived.
“This was a very tense situation,” he said, praising the actions of officers who responded to a person “obviously suffering some type of behavioral crisis.”
Two other police shootings occurred earlier this year in roughly the same area in southwest Baltimore. The region has long been plagued by poverty, violence and disinvestment. Those shootings, which included a deadly foot chase in November, raised questions about police tactics in the area.
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“This is always an area of concern for us,” Worley said. “There was a lot of violence, there was a lot of drug activity, and our officers were doing exactly what we wanted them to do: patrol high-crime areas, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Ta.”
Worley said the department activated its critical incident reporting policy, which typically involves releasing body camera footage within a few days.
