A suspected shoplifter was fatally shot to death by an off-duty, Baltimore County police officer who was working security. The officer was in full uniform but did not have a body camera, when he suspected the man of not paying for detergent at a local supermarket. The officer approached the man, who’s name hasn’t been released, as he was getting into the drivers side of a vehicle and drove off dragging the police officer over 100 feet before he shot the driver in the vehicle. Police spokeswoman, Officer Jennifer Peach, did not say how the officer came to be dragged.
The officer “feared for his life,” she said. The suspect died at the scene, and another person, who had been sitting in the passenger’s seat of the vehicle, was hospitalized for stress-related pain, Peach said. The officer, whose name also was not released, was not injured, she said. Some at the scene and on social media, questioned the officer’s justification for shooting the suspect and wondered whether the man had a weapon. Peach said she did not know whether one was found. “The person is definitely wrong for shoplifting, but to shoot and kill somebody?” a shopper said. “Especially if they didn’t have a weapon …” County Councilman Tom Quirk, who represents the area, called the incident “unfortunate,” and said he was relieved to hear the officer was not hurt. “We’re a very safe community,” he said. “Bad things sometimes happen in good places.” [Source: The Baltimore Sun]
