Police release footage of shootout

Baltimore County ID’s suspect; took place outside city police station in March

Baltimore County Police on Wednesday released the body camera footage and identified the suspect who officers followed across the city line and shot outside the Southwestern District police station last month, leaving the man in critical condition.

Samuel Andrew Arnold, 21, has been charged with several counts of assault and a weapon violation after a rifle was recovered from the scene, police said.

The body camera footage recorded a confrontation between Arnold, a Forest Hill resident, and the officers who were searching for him because he matched the description of a man who had earlier pulled a weapon on a Catonsville resident and then fled the scene.

Shortly before 6 p.m. March 17, the officers’ search reached Baltimore city and eventually brought them to an SUV parked in the 500 block of Hurley Ave., near the police station in the Gwynn Falls neighborhood.

Footage shows Arnold exiting his SUV holding the rifle and firing one shot in the direction of the city police station and the county officers before running.

At least three gunshots can then be heard on the body worn camera footage, as well as calls from officers to “watch your crossfire” before the video cuts to body camera footage that shows several officers yelling for Arnold to put his hands out as Arnold lays face down on the ground.

Arnold was taken to a local hospital in critical condition but survived his injuries.

The shooting stemmed from an emergency call made by a Catonsville resident who told the 911 dispatcher “there’s a guy at my house with a gun.”

The caller, whose name was redacted from the video, said that a white man he did not know was parked at the edge of his driveway in a tan Chevy Blazer when he arrived home from work.

The caller said the man “jumped out of his truck with” a black rifle, and later told responding police the man had aimed the gun at him.

“He could’ve shot me right then,” the caller told police.

Online court records show Arnold was released on his own recognizance, pending a trial.

Efforts to reach Arnold were unsuccessful.

His attorney, Brian G. Thompson, said Wednesday that Arnold is “not in any condition to be interviewed at this point.”

County police spokeswoman Joy Stewart said an administrative investigation has not finished, and won’t conclude until the city finishes its criminal investigation into the shooting. Baltimore City police did not respond to questions about the investigation.