Suspect sought in police officer’s slaying

TOWSON, MD. » Heavily armed police swarmed into a leafy suburb where a Baltimore County officer was fatally shot on Monday, searching for at least one armed suspect.

A witness told a local television station that one of his sons saw the officer with her gun drawn, trying to pull over a Jeep, when the vehicle accelerated. Gunshots were heard and the Jeep ran over the officer, Tony Kurek told WBAL-TV.

Kurek said his other son, who is a volunteer firefighter, then performed CPR on her while they called 911.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan confirmed the death, saying “we’re deeply saddened” that the “brave officer” was shot in the line of duty.

Kurek said he saw the officer bleeding from the back of her head. Arriving paramedics rushed her to the hospital.

“The paramedics worked on her frantically. You could just tell it wasn’t good,” Kurek said. “They did everything to get her out of here ASAP.”

Police said it happened on Linwen Way in the northeast Baltimore community of Perry Hall. Authorities were advising motorists to avoid the area and residents to shelter in place while the hunt for the suspect continued. Students at three local elementary schools were not being dismissed but were instead being held over on alert status, and their parents were told to await further instructions.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said residents in the area were being urged to “shelter in place” during the search, as authorities said they were seeking one or possibly more armed suspects. He said the state “stands ready to provide any and all resources necessary to capture” those responsible and bring them to justice.

A Baltimore County police spokesman says the officer had responded to a call just before 2 p.m. about a suspicious vehicle. “She encountered at least one suspect and was critically injured in this altercation with this suspect,” police spokesman Cpl. Shawn Vinson, told a news briefing Monday.

“What exactly happened we are not sure yet until an autopsy is performed,” Vinson says. He says she received significant injuries but said he had no immediate information about how she was wounded or whether she had fired her own weapon.

Vinson added that she immediately received treatment after neighbors called authorities, but was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.

He said the officer’s family has been notified, adding she would have been a four-year veteran in July.

He says police from several agencies backed by federal law enforcement are widely searching the area for “multiple suspects” who are possibly armed.