Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Baltimore Releases Bodycam of May 14 Shooting That Killed Man in Mental-Health Crisis

The footage supports police accounts that officers shot after a man fired at then charged them, prompting state and internal probes plus a federal trace of the weapon.

Overview

  • Body-worn camera released May 22 shows Louis Jackson firing at patrol vehicles and running toward Officer Sharod Watson with a revolver during a May 14 encounter in southwest Baltimore.
  • Police say Jackson fired four rounds, Watson fired three, Officer Mark Rankine fired five, and Jackson was taken to a hospital where he later died.
  • Officials disclosed that two 911 calls about a separate reported suicide attempt and a man with a gun were made about five minutes earlier but were not heard by the responding officers because Jackson crossed police-district lines.
  • The Maryland Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division is leading a review, the Baltimore Police Department has opened an internal probe, both officers are on administrative duty, and the department shared the video with Jackson’s family.
  • Police recovered a revolver with an obliterated serial number that federal authorities are tracing, and the case has renewed questions about crisis-response training and the role of mobile crisis teams in responding to people having mental-health emergencies.