A pole camera caught suspects in the act of an apparent drug deal and robbery, and Baltimore Police used the footage to quickly capture the suspects early Wednesday in downtown Baltimore.
Shortly after 3 a.m. at Park Avenue and Mulberry Street, two people held up a man dealing drugs and shot the dealer as he ran away, police said.
The entire scene was caught on a Baltimore Police Department pole camera, whose operator quickly called patrol officers. They caught the suspects as they fled the scene in a car.
Officers arrested the two alleged robbers and their alleged getaway driver on the 500 block of North Fremont Avenue and seized .38-caliber and .44-caliber handguns from the vehicle, police said.
“If it wasn?t for this camera, these guys might have gotten away,” police spokesman Det. Donny Moses said. “They?d be at home sleeping right now waiting to rob somebody else tonight.”
Police did not release the names of the three men Wednesday because they had not been formally charged.
The arrest came hours after a police officer on aroutine patrol arrested a man wanted for double murder.
At about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Bagada Dionas, 21, was arrested by Officer Richard Hall at the Havenwood Shopping Center.
Dionas was wanted for a July 15 double homicide. Charlie Stevenson, 17, has already been arrested.
“I was scanning the whole lot with my binoculars, and I knew as soon as I saw him it was Mr. Dionas,” Hall, 23, said of the arrest. “This is exactly why I?ve been wanting to do this job since I was 5 years old.”
Police pole cameras capture a drug deal as it happens. A third man enters the screen and shoots at the suspected drug dealer after trying to rob the man.
Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford said the two arrests show the variety of techniques police use to solve crimes.
“That?s technology at one end and old-fashioned police work at the other end,” he said.
