City officers take stand for prosecution in police trial

Colleague faces charges including attempted murder

Two Baltimore police officers took the witness stand Wednesday to testify for prosecutors in the trial of their colleague, who is charged with attempted murder in the shooting of an unarmed man.

Both officers, Keven Leary and Isiah Smith, also opened fire on Michael Johansen at a corner store in December 2014 — though neither was criminally charged.

A third officer, Wesley Cagle, is facing charges that include attempted murder. Prosecutors allege Cagle had no reason to shoot Johansen, who was already on the ground after being shot by the other officers. The officers had gone to the store for a report of a burglary and encountered Johansen in a ski mask.

Questioned by prosecutor Gerard Volatile, Leary told the jury that Cagle didn’t need to shoot as Johansen lay in a doorway of the store in the 3000 block of E. Monument St. “The threat was over,” Leary said. Leary also testified that after the shooting, Cagle told him, “I shot him in the” groin.

Cagle’s defense team says the prosecution won’t be able to prove that the bullet fired by Cagle hit Johansen and suggested that Leary’s testimony was not consistent with previous statements he made to investigators.

The officers’ testimony came the day that Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby sharply criticized the role of police in investigating misconduct by their fellow officers. She made the comments after dropping charges against all remaining Baltimore police officers in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray — a process she said was stifled by police working to undermine the prosecution.

But Police Commissioner Kevin Davis defended the work done by detectives who investigated Gray’s death.

“These same detectives investigated and criminally charged a Baltimore police officer who is presently on trial for attempted murder,” Davis said in a statement, apparently referring to the Cagle case. “They are more than willing to hold persons who commit crimes accountable for their actions.”

At the Cagle trial, Leary said he told Smith that what Cagle did “was wrong.”

Leary also said he spoke with internal affairs investigators about the incident. When he returned to work after the shooting, Leary said, he was pulled off the streets after two weeks because “there were certain calls I wouldn’t get backed up on.”

Cagle, 46, is charged with attempted first- and second-degree murder, firstdegree assault and a firearm violation. He is suspended from the force without pay.

Smith and Leary were cleared in the shooting because prosecutors determined that Johansen reached toward his waistband and refused their commands.

On the witness stand, both described the morning of the shooting. After Smith and Leary had shot Johansen, Cagle approached him as he lay in the doorway, they said.

Smith described hearing “an exchange of words” between Cagle and Johansen, but said he could not make out what they were saying. Then Cagle fired, Smith recalled.

Cross-examined by the defense, Smith acknowledged that he could only see Johansen’s feet once Cagle approached him and that he could not be sure the bullet hit Johansen.

Johansen, who said he was addicted to heroin and went to the store to “get some money,” testified Tuesday. He told jurors that Cagle called him “a piece of [expletive]” before shooting him in the groin.

The trial is scheduled to continue today.