Two police officers assigned to a U.S. Marshals task force were shot in Northeast Baltimore on Wednesday, officials confirmed.
City police said the officers, one from Baltimore City and one from Baltimore County, are part of a fugitive task force attached to the U.S. Marshals office. They were among a group of officers trying to serve an arrest warrant on a man wanted in a Pennsylvania case about noon in the 5900 Block of Radecke Avenue.
The suspect opened fire, was shot and pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The Associated Press reports that David Lutz, a U.S. Marshals service spokesman, says one officer was shot in the leg and the other in the stomach. He says both officers were assigned to the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force.
The officers are being treated at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, according to a city police department spokeswoman.
According to Governor Larry Hogan’s office, the task force included state troopers and Maryland Transportation Authority police as well as Baltimore City and County officers.
Hogan said during a news conference outside shock trauma that the suspect was a former Maryland corrections official who had "left his job,' gone to Pennsylvania and later returned to Baltimore.
He said in a statement issued earlier in the day that he has directed the state police to offer Maryland’s “full support and all available resources for the investigation.”
“Every day, state law enforcement officials are working in close coordination with federal and local agencies in Baltimore City and throughout the state,” the statement said. “We are providing unprecedented resources to combat this violent crime crisis from all directions, with everything we’ve got.”
City Council President Brandon Scott said in a statement the incident happened in his community, just minutes from his home.
"It’s unacceptable that such a violent act against our officers occurred in the middle of the day in a heavily residential community," he said. "I thank all of our law enforcement officers for the risks they take each day and the work they do on behalf of our community to make Baltimore safer."
