New acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld on Monday defended a rookie officer who shot a soldier to death early Sunday morning in the Inner Harbor area.
“The bottom line is: The facts speak for themselves,” he said. “The evidence speaks for itself. And we have an abundance of both, facts and evidence.”
At about 1:50 a.m. Sunday at 55 Market Place, near popular nightspot Power Plant Live, Jared Stern, a Baltimore police officer, was working overtime in full uniform in a parking garage, said Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman.
Stern encountered an altercation in the garage in which two men were fighting, police said. Stern attempted to break up the fight by using verbal commands and Mace when Alexander Larkin, 25 ? whoapparently was friends with one of the men fighting ? shot at the officer with a Desert Eagle handgun, Monroe said. Larkin was a corporal stationed at Fort Meade assigned to a military intelligence unit. The large .50-caliber handgun is not a military weapon, police said.
The officer was not struck but returned fire, shooting Larkin numerous times.
“It?s unclear what the altercation was about or why Larkin attempted to shoot the officer,” Monroe said.
Stern was placed on routine administrative leave following the shooting.
Larkin is the sixth person shot and killed by Baltimore police so far this year. Police killed five people in all of 2006.
Attempts to reach Larkin?s family Tuesday were unsuccessful.
“If bad guys want to pull out guns and try to harm citizens or harm cops, we?re going to take the steps necessary to prevent that from happening,” Bealefeld said at a news conference. “It also belies the gun culture in this city. We have seized over 2,000 weapons so far this year. That?s up 200 over where we were last year.”
