Woman's calls for help heard in bodycam video before fatal Parkville police shooting
Dec. 19—By Cassidy Jensen — cjensen@baltsun.com
PUBLISHED:December 19, 2023 at 3:55 p.m.| UPDATED:December 19, 2023 at 5:41 p.m.
Baltimore County Police Officer Christopher Schanberger had just started knocking on the door of a Parkville home when a woman's urgent cries could be heard in the night.
"Help, help me, help!" a woman called out from inside the Maple Avenue house, where police were responding to a call for a domestic disturbance at about 11:30 p.m. Nov. 24.
Seconds later, the yellow front door opened and gunfire erupted inside, according to body camera video footage released Tuesday by the Independent Investigations Division of the Maryland Attorney General's Office.
"Shots fired, shots fired," Schanberger called into his radio as he backed away from the door, the video shows.
The sound of another gunshot can be heard from inside, along with the woman's screams and a man's voice repeating, "That's right."
The screen door opened and Schanberger fired multiple times, then jumped down from the porch and took cover behind a car, according to the video.
He was one of three Baltimore County officers who shot at Arnel Redfern, 52, that night. Redfern died at the scene. County police said they believe he fired at officers and shot his wife, 48-year-old Maxine Redfern, who was found dead inside.
The Independent Investigations Division, which is investigating the shooting, previously identified the three officers who fired their weapons by their last names and years of service. The division released body camera video from all three officers: Schanberger, Andrew Burns and Brandon G. Langley. Both Burns and Langley have worked for Baltimore County Police for 22 years.
The videos released Tuesday show the three officers crouching behind different vehicles, at times raising their weapons to fire toward the porch.
Shots continued from multiple locations for more than a minute, multiple videos show. About a minute after Schanberger first fired, after a flurry of shooting, another officer can be heard yelling: "Get on the ground! Drop the weapon!"
Moments later a man can be heard groaning in Schanberger's video.
"Two down," Schanberger then said into a radio, later adding that the woman had been struck multiple times.
The videos show the officers remaining behind vehicles as they repeatedly yell at the man to stay down and put his hands on his head.
"Sounds like he still has a gun, guys," Langley told his fellow officers more than four minutes after the shooting started.
Maxine Redfern had requested a protective order as she sought a divorce from her husband, who, she wrote in court papers, mentally and psychologically abused her.
She told a Baltimore County judge in October that her husband's behavior had become more "erratic" since their separation and that she twice had to call county police after her husband intruded on her space or kept her from leaving. She was granted both a temporary protective order and a final protective order, although the final order did not require her husband to stay away from her or vacate the house.
Experts say leaving a relationship can be one of the most dangerous times for victims of intimate partner violence. Help is available 24/7 at the National Domestic Violence Hotline (800-799-7233).
Police and the attorney general's office have not said how they believe Arnel Redfern got the handgun investigators recovered.
He signed forms certifying he did not own any firearms when he was served with the temporary and final protective orders, and a Baltimore County Sheriff's Office background check found he had no guns owned in his name. He was also convicted of robbery and drug charges in the 1990s that would prohibit him from owning a gun under state law.
Body camera video from a person identified as "an assisting officer" shows police approaching the porch and going inside the home. It was more than 10 minutes after the shooting stopped, according to the video time stamps.
That officer handcuffed a bloody man in a black sweatshirt lying apparently unresponsive on the porch, the video shows.
"We got a gun right here," the officer said, referring to a weapon under the man's body.
After about a minute, the officer began performing CPR and told another person to search for bullet holes in the man's body.
The Independent Investigations Division will determine whether to criminally charge the officers involved in the shooting, a power that the state unit gained from local prosecutors Oct. 1.
Baltimore Sun reporter Dan Belson contributed to this article.
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