BALTIMORE, Md. — It was a chaotic night in West Baltimore, as police called in officers from all over the city to get control over the situation.
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Officers were patrolling near the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Laurens Street in Upton after 7 p.m., Tuesday night when they approached a man they believed to be armed.
Baltimore Police say the man took off running. Officers chased him; that's when he fired his gun, hitting one officer in the foot. Three more officers shot back, striking the man. He hasn't been identified yet, but police confirmed he was an adult. He was taken to the hospital, where he died a few hours later.
The officer who was hit, an 8-year veteran of the department, will have surgery and is expected to be okay.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the reaction of bystanders made a bad situation worse.
"Once you see the body-worn camera, you will see that the crowd actually interfered with us, our ability to give the victim aid. They basically swamped and swarmed our officers," Commissioner Worley said during a news conference on Tuesday night. "What I can tell you is that as soon as the incident occurred, the officers approached to try to give aid, but they were forced away because the crowd overtook them."
"Not being able to render aid—that's unsuitable. We should have at least boundaries," resident Avon Lewis told WMAR-2 News on Wednesday afternoon.
The relationship between the police and the community in this section of the city has been marked by tension for years.
"There's always an increased police presence in that area. It's an area that we get a lot of complaints about for drug activity and a lot of different crimes in that area," Commissioner Worley said.
But neighbors tell WMAR-2 News things don't usually escalate to the degree they did on Tuesday.
"Basically this area tends to be like an open-air drug market, but as long as you're not messing up anybody's property or being violent with anybody, they fall back. They do their job; when you need them, they're there," resident Brenda Thomas said.
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"The nonsense that we have going on, I don't understand why the young men and the young ladies don't want to take heed; do something else with your life," Lewis said.
"There's a whole history of mistrust in terms of community and police relations in the past," Baltimore City Councilman John Bullock told WMAR-2 News on Wednesday. "I think there also may not have been a full understanding of what was happening in that moment, but again, I think folks are still trying to get additional details as to, you know, what exactly occurred and then why the community responded the way they did."
Councilman Bullock said some bystanders may have feared that the man was unarmed and that it was an act of "police brutality." He said at this point, he has no reason to believe that the account provided by police was inaccurate.
"My ears are always open to members of the community if there are concerns or things they might have seen or things they might have heard," he said. "But I think it's important for us to also make sure that folks are getting the most accurate information and not necessarily jumping to a conclusion but also getting all the details, and I know in the next few days more details will be coming out."
The Baltimore Police Department’s Special Investigations Response Team (SIRT) and Homicide Section are investigating the incident alongside the Maryland Office of the Attorney General.
