A noose found at an East Baltimore fire station, prompting outrage and a federal investigation, had been placed there by a black firefighter, authorities said.
Donald Maynard, a firefighter-paramedic apprentice, admitted he placed the noose and a drawing depicting a lynching, fire officials said Saturday evening.
Maynard wanted to “create the perception that members within our department were acting in a discriminatory and unprofessional manner,” Fire Chief William Goodwin said in a statement. “I cannot and will not tolerate it.”
“We are very disappointed,” said Sterling Clifford, spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon. “Obviously, anything like this is taken very seriously, and it?s unfortunate.”
Clifford said the mayor was relieved other firefighters were not involved.
No criminal charges have been filed against Maynard, Clifford said.
City officials said Maynard was suspended from the department Friday for failing to meet training requirements for advanced life-saving training.
Maynard had told fire officials he and a paramedic found the noose and drawing on Nov. 21, along with a note, at the Herman Williams Jr. firehouse at East 25th Street and Kirk Avenue.
The note, written in a childlike scrawl and left next to rope tied in a knot, was found in the bunk room.
“We cant [sic] hang the cheaters, but we can hang the failures. NO EMT-I, NO JOB,” it read.
The note apparently referred to the requirement that all city firefighters must pass advanced life-saving training as a condition of employment. (EMT-I refers to emergency medical technician, intermediate.)
The noose and note turned up amid an investigation into possible cheating on a test emergency medical technicians must take to become certified as paramedics.
Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the revelations that a black firefighter was responsible for the incident were disturbing.
“This is a sad day for all us,” he said. “If the individual is proven guilty, he or she must be punished and provided with whatever medical attention is necessary.”
In May, an Afro wig was placed on a moose head in the firehouse. A black firefighter later admitted to putting the wig on the moose head.
