The block where the shots occurred after the police came (from my cellphone)
Every Monday night I go to Towson, MD to attend a meeting. Last Monday I was early and walking from my car to the Barnes and Noble bookstore, when I heard gunshots. There was one muffled shot and then there were three clear and louder discharges. I thought about the pattern of sounds and wondered if there were two different guns and a gunfight on the street. The sounds came from about three quarters of a block straight ahead.
I didn’t want to get involved in a dangerous situation so I turned into the bookstore. When I came out twenty minutes later, the block was closed and there were about a dozen police cars with lights flashing. I went to the meeting and came back after an hour and a half and the police were still there.
I told a policeman I had some information that might be of use. When I said what I had heard, he told me there was a robbery, a robber was killed and it all happened in the store. I said that what I heard implied that the last three shots were outside and he basically told me to get lost. I then approached a higher ranking police official and he made the first policeman take my name but no details were taken down.
The story released by the police to the media (See WBALTV or Baltimore Sun) was that the clerk shot the robber inside the store and the robber collapsed outside the store. What I heard strongly suggests that the first shot was inside the door and then the shooter came outside and continued shooting. Now, I didn’t see the incident so I don’t know what really happened; but what I heard was very clear and is not consistent with the police story. It is consistent with following the robber and shooting at a fleeing person, which isn’t legal in Maryland. The police I talked to and the story released to the press show a desire to dismiss this homicide as justified from the start.
I emailed the reporter at the Sun; and my information was added to the story linked above. The reporter said that the police were not releasing any videos or other evidence.
If the shooting wasn’t legal and that’s being covered up, many would say the robber deserved what he got. I think this is a very dangerous way to think about such incidents. I am sympathetic to a person in a crisis being scared and angry and using bad judgment, and I think a judge should be lenient in sentencing such a person; but, we don’t execute people for robbery and we give them trials. Self-defense is about saving a life--not striking back against “bad guys.” The position that it’s OK to kill someone just because they “deserve it” is immoral. It’s being sold by the NRA and by people who make write and make comments on the web and far too often by the police. It drives the adoption of extreme “stand your ground” laws and motivates many of the people who want to carry guns in public. If we want to call ourselves civilized, it has no place in our society.
I hope the police truly investigate this killing and back off their initial position. I also hope that I’m wrong and it is really a case of self-defense.
