Video shows chase, shooting
Footage appears to confirm he was shot in the back; police await medical report
A Baltimore Police officer chased a 17-year-old who was running away and shot the teen from behind, body camera footage released Tuesday shows.
The video, captured by the officer who shot the teen, Cedric Elleby, shows the foot pursuit last Thursday through an alley and onto a nearby street in Southwest Baltimore’s Shipley Hill neighborhood.
Elleby can be heard ordering the teen to drop a weapon and to stop. The detective then fires his weapon four times, striking the teen at least once.
After the shooting, police began to render aid. The teen can be seen on the video with at least one gunshot wound, with injuries on his back and front.
The video appears to show the teen carrying and then dropping what police said was a handgun with an extended magazine when he was shot.
The footage appears to confirm witness statements that the teen was shot in the back.
However, police at a Tuesday news conference declined to say definitively where he was shot, saying the officer has not yet been interviewed and police don’t yet have a medical report.
“It’s unknown, or undetermined, right now, which one of those injuries is the entry wound and which one is the exit wound,” Commissioner Michael Harrison said.
The shooting is being investigated by Baltimore Police’s Special Investigations Division. Police have said Elleby believed the teen had a “bulge near his waistband,” prompting the officer’s approach that led to the chase.
Harrison said Tuesday the agency will do a “thorough, transparent and extensive” investigation alongside the State’s Attorney’s Office.
Elleby, who joined the department in 2019, has been placed on administrative leave, according to department protocol, said Deputy Commissioner Brian Nadeau, who leads the department’s Public Integrity Bureau. The agency previously identified Elleby as a member of one of the agency’s District Action Teams, specialized police units dedicated to district needs and violent crime arrests.
It’s possible the teen could face criminal charges: Harrison said BPD has taken the case to a court commissioner, who then sent an affidavit to the State’s Attorney’s Office for their review.
James Bentley, a spokesman for that office, said it was aware of the charges filed with the commissioner and would be deciding “how to proceed.”
Harrison and Bentley declined to say what criminal charges were proposed or under consideration.
“As with any open and ongoing investigation, we cannot comment at this time,” Bentley said.
The Baltimore Sun is not naming the teen because he is a minor.
Baltimore Police said Monday that the 17-year-old’s condition had been upgraded to stable, after being critical last week.
His mother, Kieria Franklin, said Friday that he had undergone surgery, in which doctors removed his left kidney and spleen.
Elleby’s body camera footage begins when he is seated on the stoop of a McHenry Street rowhouse, apparently speaking with a group of people. Audio of that interaction is not captured, and officials said Tuesday there is no body camera footage of that interaction.
Two of the people gathered can be seen walking away from Elleby, who follows.
They pause a short distance away, at which point Elleby appears to speak with them again. The audio begins with someone, likely Elleby, saying, “Come here,” and appearing to reach for one of the people, who is wearing a white shirt and a black backpack.
That teen takes off running, and Elleby chases.
Nadeau said the audio begins when the officer activated his body camera. The cameras capture a minute of silent footage prior to the point they are activated.
Police on Tuesday showed a sloweddown, edited version of the video alongside the unedited footage. The edited version highlights moments where police say the teen pulled an object from his waistband, when he is holding it in his hand, and when he turns his head to the right as he is running away.
Around that time, Elleby can be heard saying, “Stop, stop, stop,” and “Put the gun down, put the gun down.” He then fires. Four shots can be heard in the video, and the teen falls onto his left side, with the object on the ground nearby.
A Smith & Wesson 9 mm firearm with an
extended magazine, with four rounds in it, was recovered from the scene, Nadeau said. Police said the weapon was stolen from a vehicle in the Western District in 2021.
Officials largely declined to comment Tuesday on the officer’s actions, noting there is an ongoing investigation and he has not yet been interviewed.
Harrison, for instance, didn’t say what offense the teen was suspected of when the officer decided to pursue him on foot.
The U.S. Department of Justice found in 2016 that Baltimore Police had a pattern of using “unreasonable” force against people who posed little threat, including people fleeing from officers and not suspected of violent crimes.
Officials wrote in a scathing report that foot pursuits increase the likelihood officers will use force to stop an individual, which otherwise wouldn’t be reasonable based on the threat or crime. Foot pursuits for low-level offenses, the report added, are an “unsafe tactic that unnecessarily endangers officers and community members.”
At the time, Justice Department investigators said the Baltimore Police had no policy on foot pursuits and “deficient” training on the topic.
Policy now says an officer may use deadly force against a fleeing person only if it is necessary and there is probable cause to believe the person has committed or is committing a serious felony offense and that their escape would pose an imminent danger.
Harrison said Tuesday that the decision to use deadly force, according to policy, is a determination of whether it is “reasonable,
proportional and necessary.”
“The officer has to determine that in a second, in a nanosecond. But it is based on the threat and the potential of threat that the officer has to assess, to be able to make that decision,” Harrison said.
Some Shipley Hill residents objected last week to the shooting, and some onlookers questioned police’s justification for the initial interaction. Another video released Tuesday shows an angry crowd of onlookers gathering and yelling at officers as they render aid to the 17-year-old.
Deputy Commissioner Rich Worley said last week the officer had approached because he believed the teen was “displaying characteristics of an armed person.”
Daquan Young, a friend of the teen’s, said nonuniformed officers frequently pass through the neighborhood. “They come and bother us every day,” he said.
Defense attorney Natalie Finegar called the police terminology “characteristics of an armed person” a “nebulous area,” created to justify a stop based on a “hunch.” Finegar said it’s an area “fraught for abuse” similar to the so-called war on drugs in the early ‘90s.
On Tuesday, Baltimore attorney J. Wyndal Gordon called the video “painful to watch,” adding he believes the officer should face criminal charges.
“Using your weapon is supposed to be your last resort, not the first or second thing,” Gordon said. “That was not what we saw on that video.”
However, Warren Brown, another defense attorney, said he expected the officer’s actions ultimately would be found justified, pointing to the gun in the teen’s hand.
“Ordinarily, you’re shot in the back running away from police or anybody, usually, that’s a slam dunk,” Brown said. “But he’s got the gun in his hand and it’s by his side.”
Retired police captain and use-of-force expert Ashley Heiberger noted that someone running away can fire behind themselves in “fractions of a second.” He said it’s difficult to evaluate the video without the interactions that took place before audio was captured.
“We’re at a distinct disadvantage because we don’t have any context,” Heiberger said.
Harrison on Tuesday praised the officer’s engagement with people in the area, noting that Elleby was sitting with the group “until the behavior escalated.”
“This officer was out of the car, which citizens are asking for cars to do, engaging and disarming, if you will. The officer took a seat right next to this individual and was engaging,” Harrison said.
Harrison said that in the last 28 days, there were more than 150 calls for service in the Shipley Hill area, including for disorderly persons, burglary, assault, narcotics and an armed person. The commissioner also noted a recent arrest announcement in the same Shipley Hill neighborhood.
That “takedown” was part of the city’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which pairs law enforcement efforts with targeted city services. The department’s District Action Teams have been playing a role in that strategy as it expands to new police districts this year, but Harrison said Tuesday that Elleby’s actions were not related to the group violence initiative.