Campus Police Officer Involved in Fatal Baltimore Shooting
The officer is being credited with stopping a suspect’s shooting.
Coppin State Police Chief Leonard Hamm said the officer did "exactly what he was trained to do."
An investigation is underway after a Coppin State University police officer fatally shot a man suspected in a shooting near the Baltimore campus Tuesday.
The shooting occurred around 6:20 p.m. when a uniformed campus police officer intervened in an ongoing shooting at a traffic intersection in West Baltimore. Baltimore police are also searching for additional suspects and victims, reports foxbaltimore.com.
The incident began when a vehicle stopped after making a turn at N. Warwick and Windsor Ave. A passenger in that vehicle got out of the car and opened fire on another vehicle police described as being “a bit behind” his own.
A Coppin State police officer driving directly behind the shooter’s vehicle then got out of his unmarked car and discharged his weapon while the suspect was still firing at the other car, says BPD Chief of Media Relations T.J. Smith.
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The drivers of the suspect’s car and the car the suspect was shooting at fled the scene immediately. Shortly after the shooting, the suspect was pronounced dead and a weapon was recovered.
“It ended in seconds,” Smith told media outlets.
Smith described the suspect, who has not been identified, as a young adult male who was not a student.
Now Baltimore police are searching for the other people involved in the incident, adding that one of the vehicles may be transporting shooting victims.
Although the officer was not equipped with a body worn camera, police say surveillance footage from nearby businesses captured the incident, including what Smith described as “the reckless nature of the passenger getting out of the vehicle” in an area with a lot of traffic.
“The officer happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Coppin State Police Chief Leonard Hamm said.
Hamm, who said the officer followed proper procedures, is the former Baltimore Police Commissioner.
The officer was on a patrol designed to deter vehicle break-ins at the time of the shooting.
Hamm said the Coppin State campus was never placed on lockdown because of the brevity of the incident and the fact that it occurred off campus.
N. Warwick Ave runs adjacent to the Coppin State campus.
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