A Baltimore City police officer was in critical condition Tuesday after being shot once in the leg during a traffic stop.
Two officers pulled over a vehicle around 2 p.m. at West Lanvale and Poplar Grove streets, when a man inside the car jumped out and began to run, said city police spokesman Sterling Clifford.
The suspect turned and fired at the officer with a handgun, striking him ? causing the officer to return fire, striking the suspect multiple times, he said.
The officer and suspect were in critical conditional at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore City.
Police officers at the scene said the injured officer?s heart rate was “extremely high” after being shot.
Officers responding to the scene were shot at by a second suspect, who they believed barricaded himself in a nearby house, Clifford said.
Alexander Hamilton Elementary School was locked down during the incident.
As three police helicopters circled the scene, a crowd gathered around the barricade situation.
Neighbor Steven Johnson, 36, said his 11- and 8-year-old daughters were inside the locked-down school.
“I?m very concerned,” he said.
“I?m not going to be happy until I can see them, hold them and make sure they?re OK.”
Neighbor Diane Rose, 56, said violence has gotten worse in the area, with a shooting two blocks away from the incident earlier this month.
“They don?t have respect for authority anymore,” Rose said of young men in the neighborhood.
“If you?ll shoot a police officer, you?ll shoot anybody.”
Brian Waters, 51, said he?s lived in the neighborhood for 30 years and drug gangs with guns make everyone there uneasy.
“It?s sporadic,” he said of the violence. “But it?s gotten worse.”
