BALTIMORE — The damage is still fresh much like the concern of residents and businesses grappling with the horrible news that an officer was shot in their neighborhood.
RELATED: BPD officer in grave condition after ambush-style attack in Curtis Bay
Business owners say this officer did her job and treated them well in the process.
“I hope she be alright you know?” said one resident.
Pain and concern bleeding through a community grappling with the news they call unthinkable.
“Our kids are dying and now our police are dying. What’s going to happen to everybody next?” Another asked.
The damage still fresh along Pennington Street where police say an officer was on duty parked when a shooter walked up to the rear of her patrol car and began firing into the vehicle hitting her.
“She called me Pop,” Rasik Patel remembered.
Patel, the owner of a convenience store right across the street says he woke up overnight to a knock at his door from police officers.
“I see all the road closed police officers, detectives and everybody was there,” Patel recalled.
He learned an officer was shot but for him it wasn’t just any officer.
“She was here at 6:30 last night. She was asking me ‘how you doing Pop’ I said ‘I’m alright.’ I was really shocked. I see all of those fence broken and everything and car flipped over over there and I said Jesus Christ if a police officer is not safe how am I gonna be? Local people you know? That’s the biggest issue,” said Patel.
He says she protected the community and his business making him feel safer at his home away from home.
“She always asked me 'hi pop how you doing'. If she wanted to use the bathroom she could and I say 'officer you want a drink' and she says 'no I’m alright'. She is a nice officer….oh my God. I feel bad you know about for her. Especially. I don’t know how many kids she’s got if she’s married or not. I never asked her but I feel so bad,” he said.
BPD is offering a $59,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the BPD officer’s shooter.
