A rookie Baltimore police officer just out of the academy was accosted and shot outside his northeast Baltimore home early Tuesday morning, police said.
Momodu Gondo was returning home around 12:30 a.m. after working a double shift when an unknown number of assailants shot him several times in the back after he got out of his car on the 5700 block of The Alameda. Gondo returned fire after a brief struggle, but it is not known whether any of the assailants were hit, police officials said. Police also do not know the motive for the shooting.
Gondo, 23, who is assigned to the Northwestern district, was off duty but wearing his uniform and bullet-proof vest under an overcoat, police said. He was taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where his condition was upgraded from critical to serious but stable Tuesday afternoon after several hours of surgery. Police officials said Gondo was conscious before he went into surgery.
Gondo graduated from the police academy in October.
A mobile police unit was parked on the 5700 block of the Alameda Tuesday afternoon. Officers on the scene said there were no new developments in the case.
Residents of the neighborhood said the shooting in what they described as a relatively calm area surprised them.
“It?s terrible,” said a neighbor who has lived across the street in an apartment complex for three years but did not wish to be identified. “I thought this area was safe, but it proves you never know,” he said.
Staff writer Kathleen Cullinan contributed to this report.
