Baltimore police would not make public Friday the answers to several key questions about the fatal shooting of Officer Norman Stamp, including how the off-duty veteran could have pulled a handgun while allegedly wearing brass knuckles.
“They say he came out with brass knuckles on, but I don?t believe that,” said Paul Treash, the sergeant-at-arms at the Chosen Sons motorcycle club, which Stamp founded in 1969. “Something is not right here.”
The department also could not explain why the initial public account of the incident differs drastically from a statement of probable cause written during the night?s only arrest.
Treash said he never knew Stamp to carry brass knuckles — and believes officers likely mistook a pin emblem of brass knuckles for the weapon.
“You normally wear brass knuckles on the hand you use all the time,” he said. “If he had them on, how would he actually reach for the gun? How would you be able to hold the gun?”
Stamp, 65, was shot to death while off-duty when police say he pulled a handgun during a fight outside the Haven Place club in the 500 block of N. Haven St. in southeast Baltimore.
In an official account given Thursday, Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld said officers responded shortly after midnight Wednesday to reports of a fight at a strip club. Officer John Torres tried to stop customers from leaving the bar during the fight in the parking lot, police said.
Torres confronted Stamp when he left the bar wearing brass knuckles, and used a Taser to knock him to the ground, where Stamp drew his handgun, and Torres fired the fatal shot, Bealefeld said.
In charging documents written by Officer Douglas Shroyer, police said Alberto Mojica, 42, was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Officer Jason Rivera said Mojica was “very intoxicated and was told to leave several times” but refused to do so, continuing to “cause a disturbance, causing a crowd to gather, ” Shroyer wrote. Mojica was then arrested.
The police report makes no mention of a fight or a police-involved shooting.
The charge against Mojica, who has no criminal record, was quickly dismissed by prosecutors.
Police spokesman Sterling Clifford said Mojica broke a leg during the fight, though that is not mentioned in the documents either.
Three officers, including Rivera and Torres, have been placed on routine administrative duty.
“He stood up for his brothers in the club and he got gunned down by his own police department,” Treash said.
THE FUNERAL
A viewing for Stamp is slated for Saturday and Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Bruzdzinski Funeral Home, 1407 Old Eastern Ave. The funeral service is planned for Monday at 11 a.m. at the funeral home.
