RadioOnFire.com - A Baltimore police officer was shot in the hand during a scuffle with a gunman Wednesday night in Cherry Hill around 8:00 p.m., police said.
Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said two uniformed police officers assigned to the Southern District Action Team were in the 800 block of Bridgeview Road, where they observed a man behaving suspiciously. The officers approached the man, who was armed with a gun.
"At least two officers struggled with the gunman in an effort to take his gun from him. The gunman made every effort ... to hold on to his firearm as the officers were trying to disarm the gunman. At some point during the brief struggle, the gunman discharged one round and it struck one of our two police officers in the palm of his hand," Davis said.
The officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Shock Trauma. Davis said the officer suffered a "through-and-through" bullet wound in his right hand.
Davis and Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh visited with the officer. They said the 30-year-old officer is in great spirits. He has been on the force for some time.
"He's going to be OK," Davis said. "He was giving the nurses a hard time. He and the mayor were talking about who's a better runner. I stayed out of that conversation. But he's in good spirits. The only thing he asked me was, 'Please don't put me behind a desk.'"
Davis said a body-worn camera captured the incident on video.
"The other officer, who was not shot, when the firearm was away from our gunman discharged his TASER, non-lethal force, and because of that discharge of a TASER, we were able to safely apprehend him, handcuff him and recover the firearm," Davis said.
The suspect was taken to Harbor Hospital with unknown injuries. Police said he had a loaded .40-caliber handgun along with crack and heroin. Davis said the gunman was born in 1982 and has been involved in three prior shootings. Davis said the gunman is a convicted felon who should not have had a gun.
"It's a small number of violent repeat offenders that we have to concentrate on, and we just have to have a serious conversation as a city about violent repeat offenders and the consequences that are necessary to hold them accountable," Davis said.
The shooting occurred the same day that the Police Department buried one of its own, Detective Sean Suiter.
"We just buried a police officer. When officers leave their homes, their families' hearts go with them because they pray that they get to come back home, and fortunately, this officer will get to go home," Pugh said.
"In the spirit of Sean Suiter's memory, these police officers were out here tonight doing exactly what we asked them to do. They put themselves in harm's way. They engage people who are out here who will do harm to people in our community," Davis said.
The commissioner called the officer shot Wednesday night "an all-star cop."
Source WBAL
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