Baltimore police officers fatally shoot man after he threatened woman with a knife
BALTIMORE — Baltimore police say officers fatally shot a man who was holding up a woman at knifepoint in a Broadway East home Sunday morning.
At a news conference, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said police shot and killed an unidentified man after he was seen holding a woman at knifepoint inside a home in the 1800 block of E. Lafayette Avenue Sunday morning.
Harrison said officers tried to de-escalate the situation by requesting the man put down the knife and release the woman before they ultimately shot and killed the man to save the woman. The commissioner said the woman was unharmed in the attack.
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Mayor Brandon Scott commended the officers’ efforts, saying they did what they could to save the woman’s life.
“They did exactly what we want them to do: to try and preserve life at all costs,” Scott said.
Police had not identified the suspect as of Sunday afternoon. Harrison said at the news conference the department plans to release footage of the responding officers’ body-worn cameras to the public.
It’s the second person shot by police in the neighborhood in the past four days. A man, who the department said struck an officer with his vehicle, was shot by police on the 2200 block of E. Biddle Street on Thursday. Both the suspect and the officer survived their injuries, police said.
Police statistics show that domestic violence has risen year-over-year as people were forced to work and spend more time at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Baltimore Police Department data shows there were 359 domestic aggravated assaults from January through March of this year, compared with 266 during that same period in 2020, a 35% increase.
