Baltimore Police officer, suspect injured in shooting
A Baltimore Police officer and a suspect were injured in a shooting Tuesday evening, officials said.
The injured officer was taken to Shock Trauma and is in fair condition, Police Chief Richard Worley said Tuesday night. The suspect was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The incident occurred near the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Laurens Street as police were patrolling the area around 7 p.m., officials said.
According to Chief Worley, officers attempted to stop a man whom they believed was armed. The man led police on a chase.
During a brief struggle, the man allegedly fired a handgun, hitting one of the officers in the foot, Worley said.
Several officers returned fire, hitting the man. A weapon was recovered on the scene, according to Worley.
Worley said at one point, a crowd in the area interfered with officers' ability to provide immediate aid, prompting a large police presence in the neighborhood after the shooting.
"It was very chaotic," Worley said. "...As the officer started the foot chase, the crowd was running behind the officer, so as soon as the victim went down, the crowd swarmed the officers, and we had to back away and couldnt give him the proper aid that we wouldve liked to have done until we had enough units on the scene to make it safe."
Shootings involving police
Fatal and non-fatal incidents involving police are investigated by the Maryland Attorney General's Independent Investigations Division (IID) under state law. The IID said it was on the scene of the shooting in Baltimore Tuesday night.
The IID has investigated nearly 76 such cases since it was created in 2021, including 13 previous cases involving Baltimore Police.
In a similar incident on May 12, 26-year-old Jai Marc Howell was killed during a shootout with Baltimore police on York Road.
Officers said they tried to approach Howell, but he led them on a chase, taking out a gun and firing shots. The gunfire struck a nearby police vehicle before officers returned fire, hitting Howell.
Crime in Baltimore
The shooting comes as Baltimore records a dip in violent crime and gun violence.
The city reported a 21% dip in killings from gun violence last year, with 3,485 victims reported in 2023 compared to 2,729 in 2024, according to WJZ's Gun Violence Tracker.
The Upton neighborhood, near the location of the shooting, has seen a 16.9% decline in homicides involving guns in the past 12 months, with eight cases reported in the past year.
