RadioOnFire.com - Four suspects are in custody after a Baltimore County police officer died Monday afternoon following an encounter in the Perry Hall area, and all four could face felony murder charges.
Officer Amy Caprio responded at around 2 p.m. to a call for a suspicious vehicle on Linwen Way. She was critically injured and was taken to MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, where she died around 2:50 p.m. An autopsy found Caprio died of traumatic injuries to the head and torso. Chief Terrence B. Sheridan said there was no evidence of a bullet wound.
Caprio was a three-year, 10-month veteran of the department. She was 29.
A 16-year-old, identified as as Dawnta Anthony Harris, has been arrested and charged with with first-degree murder as an adult as court documents state that Harris admitted he "drove at the officer" when she told him to get out of a Jeep while accomplices burglarized a house.
"He admitted that he partially opened the driver's door, but then shut it and drove at the officer," the charging documents state.
A source familiar with the case said the officer's body camera video gives a clear view of her standing in street as the vehicle comes at her. She fired one shot and got hit by the vehicle and was thrown.
The Jeep was found abandoned in the 9500 block of Dawnvale Road, close to where Caprio was struck, charging documents state. About a block away from the Jeep, police found Harris on Belair Road, based on a description from 911 callers.
Harris is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center, and was ordered held without bail at a bail review hearing held Tuesday. Harris is from Gilmor Homes in west Baltimore, a public housing complex well known because of the Freddie Gray case. Sources tell I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller that Harris has a record of car theft in the juvenile system.
"Your client in the last six months is a one-man crime wave," the judge told Harris' attorney. "I'm not sure any facility is secure enough to hold him."
Maryland Secretary of Juvenile Services Sam J. Abed said his department is working with investigators and prosecutors. He said Harris was detained based on a writ from the department on April 17. Less than two weeks ago, he was placed on home monitoring in a detention hearing attended by prosecutors and public defenders. Abed's department wasn't a party to that hearing. His department's staff then discovered, Abed said, Harris wasn't sticking to the terms of his release.
"Our staff contacted his mother on numerous occasions, we attempted to contact the youth through his cell phone," Abed said. We went to his school and other locations he was known to frequent."
Police said the other three suspects are linked to burglaries in the area. On Tuesday morning, county police were investigating leads in the 2300 block of Ashland Avenue in east Baltimore. All four suspects are from west Baltimore and all are 16 to 17 years old. The unnamed suspects have not been charged and, since all are minors, will not be identified unless they are charged as adults. However, prosecutors say all four could face felony murder charges.
She is the tenth Baltimore County officer to die in the line of duty, and the department's first female officer to die in the line of duty.
Source WBAL
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