Examiner Staff Writer
The surviving suspect in the attempted robbery of a Perry Hall grocery store that ended with the shooting of a Baltimore County police officer was denied bail Friday, as further details about the case emerged in court.
A judge ordered Vernon E. Brown, 34, who is charged with attempted armed robbery, assault and the attempted second-degree murder of Officer David Garner, held without bail in a late-morning hearing. Officials said Garner, 39, was in serious but stable condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center following surgery for his gunshot wounds.
“He?s in good spirits … sitting up and able to carry” on a conversation, local union President Cole Weston said after visiting Garner on Friday. “He?s in a lot of pain, [but] they?re managing that for him.”
“Right now, doctors are optimistic,” Cpl. Michael Hill said, noting that Garner was taken off a ventilator Thursday night.
Investigators said in court records that Brown held up a Super Fresh in the 8900 block of Belair Road Thursday morningwith his 33-year-old cousin, Learnold Jones, who later died in a backyard shed in a shootout with police. Brown shook his head in court and furrowed his brow after a prosecutor described a series of six grocery store robberies this year investigators believe could be linked to the holdup at the Super Fresh.
But he confessed to police he was part of Thursday?s attempted robbery, according to court documents. He said that both he and Jones were trying “to obtain some money for the holidays.”
A pre-trial investigator said in court that Brown works for the city of Baltimore.
“I didn?t want to believe ? I don?t believe they did it themselves,” said Gracie Jones, Brown?s grandmother, whose West Baltimore home was searched Thursday night. She said she believes Brown and Jones were “put up to” the robbery. She called Brown, who moved in with her when he was 16, “no bad boy.”
She declined to comment on Learnold Jones. No one answered the door at Jones? listed address.
According to the documents, Brown said he had second thoughts during the holdup and decided to leave. He and Jones encountered police outside and ran in opposite directions ? Brown was caught and arrested, while Jones hid in a shed nearby, officials said.
Gunfire erupted out of the shed and struck Garner; a tactical officer returned fire, apparently killing Jones, court records said.
Officials said members of Garner?s canine unit had gathered at the hospital in support of him and his wife.
“It is a very close-knit unit,” Weston said, and Garner is a “very solid person … well-liked and well-respected.”
