The Baltimore City Police Department released body camera footage from the officers who fatally shot Robert Phillip Nedd, Jr, 54, after he fled the scene of a car crash in Upton earlier this month.
Nedd is the third person fatally shot by Baltimore police officers in 2024.
Nedd was driving the wrong way down Argyle Avenue on October 9th when he crashed into a parked car. That scene is captured in body camera footage from Sergeant Thomas Gross, a 10-year Baltimore City police veteran, who approaches Nedd as he climbs out of the car. For a moment, Nedd follows Gross’s instructions to sit down on the curb.
“I just want you to relax,” Gross is heard saying as Nedd sits. While Gross calls for more assistance, Nedd begins to run.
In the footage, Nedd is seen fleeing into a nearby wooded area on the 1600 block of Argyle Street.
Gross follows Nedd while other officers run to his aid.
Body camera footage shows Nedd apprehended by a hole in a chainlink fence.
One officer can be heard shouting, “Let me see your hands or you’re going to get shot.”
Nedd raises his left hand but in his right hand is an object that police claim is a gun.
Three officers, standing in front of and behind Nedd, open fire, killing him. In total, police fired 19 shots.
Police did recover a gun from the scene, which in the footage can be seen lying strewn among other litter. There were 15 rounds in the gun, although Commissioner Richard Worley says they do not believe Nedd fired the gun during the incident.
Court records show that Nedd was released from incarceration earlier this year after serving time for a firearms related offense. He was not eligible to legally possess a firearm.
Nedd is the third person shot and killed by BPD in 2024, so far. There were two in 2023. All of the incidents in 2024 involved citizens who possessed firearms, only one involved an exchange of gunfire.
BPD officers are only to engage in foot pursuits when the officer has a reason to “believe that the suspect has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime,” as per BPD policies.
In a 2016 investigation into the Baltimore Police Department, the U.S. Department of Justice found that officers “frequently engage in foot pursuits of individuals, even where the fleeing individuals are not suspected of violent crimes.” A tactic, which, they write is dangerous to officers and community members which “frequently lead to officers using excessive force on fleeing suspects who pose minimal threat.”
On Monday, Worley said Nedd was not a suspect of a crime at the time he was pursued but still defended the officers’ decision to pursue on foot.
“He wasn't suspected of anything other than being in a car accident. But when someone runs from the police, that usually means they do not want to talk to the police, and as we found out, he was prohibited from possessing a firearm, and he had one on his person,” Worley told reporters.
Worley said officers also had a responsibility to look after Nedd’s safety in the wake of the car crash.
“We have to make sure, physically, he's okay, and then he takes off running. We don't know why he's running. He could be injured… we are pursuing to see why he was running for his safety, as well,” said the commissioner.
The Maryland Independent Investigations Division of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office is conducting an investigation. In addition to Gross, the other involved officers are identified as Officer Tyler Douglas, a two-year veteran and Officer James Klein, a one-year veteran. They are on administrative leave while the investigation is underway.
