BALTIMORE — A suspect is in custody after an officer was shot in the leg Friday afternoon in East Baltimore. The officer is hospitalized and expected to survive.
Officers responded shortly after noon to a home on the 1100 block of East Chase Street, after a person reported a family member in a behavioral crisis, police said.
There, a family member showed officers a protective order they had against the individual, police said. As the officers entered the home, the suspect allegedly tried to elude them, and a struggle ensued.
During that struggle, the suspect was able to pull out a weapon and shoot the officer in the leg. The suspect was then detained without any further injuries or shots fired, police said.
WJZ obtained the radio call of the officer frantically calling for help.
The unidentified officer was heard over radio communications frantically alerting others that he’d been shot.
“I’m hit. I’m hit, I’m hit, signal 13,” the officer yelled.
“Get a unit, get a medic here ASAP he’s bleeding from his leg pretty bad,” another officer was heard saying over the radio.
An officer on the scene applied a tourniquet to the injured officer, and they were transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital.
The officer had surgery and is stable, according to police.
“The second officer who, by the way, is an officer who’s in field training, applied the tourniquet and probably saved the officer’s life,” a BPD spokesperson said.
Chopper 13 was over the scene in East Baltimore as the young man who is 19-years-old was taken into custody.
Residents were watching as police walked him up the block.
“I called the neighbor and she said that the young man went off,” one resident told the media.
Others on the block say they know the young man and that his mother has been trying to get him help.
The department said no charges have been filed at this time and the 19-year-old is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.
“The suspect was taken into custody without any officers firing any shots and without any injuries to officers. Another example of officers doing a fabulous job in a very dangerous situation with an individual with a weapon,” said Baltimore Deputy Commissioner Richard Worley.
No charges for the suspect have been announced.
The suspect is undergoing psychiatric evaluation.