Baltimore Police Officer Tommy Sanders was indicted today on one count of voluntary manslaughter and one count of involuntary manslaughter over the shooting of an unarmed man in January.
His is the second indictment of a police officer in 12years, according to the city State’s Attorney’s Office.
Veteran city prosecutor Donald Giblin had asked jurors to consider charges of manslaughter and second-degree murder against Sanders, a 5-year veteran of the police force, who shot Edward Lamont Hunt, 27, to death on Jan. 30, sources said.
The Examiner first raised questions about the shooting after witnesses told the paper Hunt was unarmed and shot in the back after being frisked by a city police officer.
Hunt was shot when he broke away from the officer after a lengthy field interview, witnesses said. The officer told investigators Hunt broke away before he had finished frisking him.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also probing the case.
In April, city police turned over to the FBI transcripts of interviews with about 20 witnesses and other evidence related to Hunt’s death at a Northeast Baltimore shopping center.
Among the evidence turned over are video surveillance tapes taken from a nearby dollar store. The tape allegedly shows Hunt running away with Sanders in pursuit, gun drawn, just moments before the three shots were fired, sources said.
Police officials initially said Hunt possessed drugs, yet they haven’t released details of what types of drugs they believe Hunt was carrying.
In an interview earlier this year, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy told The Examiner her prosecutors have taken police-involved shootings to a grand jury “just a few times” in her 12-year career.
Jessamy said the grand jury has only returned one indictment against an officer in a police-involved shooting during her term in office. That indictment resulted in an involuntary manslaughter conviction.
Hunt’s fiancee, Lakia Jeter, hired attorney Dwight Pettit to represent the family in a wrongful-death suit against the police department.
