Baltimore man sentenced to 12 years for carjacking, assaulting BPD detective
BALTIMORE -- A man from Baltimore City has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for assaulting and carjacking a Baltimore Police Detective in 2022, according to the Maryland State's Attorney's Office.
Trevon Gardner, 23, of Baltimore, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release for his involvement in the assault and carjacking of Aaron Cain in 2022.
What happened?
On May 3, 2022, Baltimore City Police Detective, Aaron Case, was at a 7-Eleven located at 2830 South Hanover Street in the Cherry Hill neighborhood.
According to a press release, Cain was wearing his BPD training uniform: dark cargo-style pants, a polo shirt with BPD embroidered on the chest area, his BPD credentials on a lanyard around his neck, a BPD badge, a radio, and a service weapon in his waistband. He was also driving an unmarked Ford Fusion.
As Cain exited the 7-Eleven and approached the front passenger-side door of his car, three men, including Gardner, walked up to him.
One of the men who was brandishing a handgun struck Cain near his head with the gun, causing the detective to fall to the ground and hit his head. Another man then kicked and punched Cain as he lay there.
The three men entered the BPD vehicle and drove off, according to the release.
As the group sped away in Cain's vehicle, the detective got to his feet and opened fire toward the fleeing vehicle, which crashed and flipped onto its roof near the corner of Insulator Drive and West Cromwell Street, roughly a half-mile away. No one was injured during the incident.
"We're not safe..."
After the crash, Gardner allegedly ran to a nearby restaurant, where he ditched some of his clothes and threw on a restaurant apron in an apparent effort to disguise himself. He and an alleged accomplice, described by police as a 16-year-old, were taken into custody near the scene of the car wreck. The third suspect managed to escape.
"That incident, in particular, I will say, was gross. These people need to be booked and put in jail," Amisa Asima said Thursday in South Baltimore. "We're not safe. Look at me. If a police officer can be [carjacked], how about me? I'm not in uniform."
A black Taurus 9mm handgun, loaded with nine rounds of ammunition, was found next to a wrecked police vehicle. During the arrest, Gardner was wearing a single black-and-white Nike slide, while its matching counterpart was discovered near the damaged police car.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods ("PSN"), a USDJ program that began in 2021 to strengthen police-community relations, reduce violent crime and gun violence, and make neighborhoods safer.
