A single punch was all it took to kill Bradley Goff.
The night of July 22, the 20-year-old Edgewood resident had sought out another man in a fight, was bowledover by a punch and hit his head in the fall, giving him a head injury that eventually proved deadly.
“It was a very brief fight. Nobody else was injured; nobody else was even hit,” said Cpl. Jim DeCoursey of the Maryland State Police. DeCoursey would not release the name of the man who hit Goff because charges had not been filed against him.
Goff died July 31, and the Office of the State Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide ? retroactively adding a fourth homicide to Harford County?s total for 2007.
State?s Attorney Joseph Cassilly said his office would not press charges against the man who hit Goff because he appeared to be acting in self-defense.
“It?s hard to figure out who the victim is,” Cassilly said. “I feel sympathy for [Goff?s] family; He died as a result of this senseless incident.”
Goff appeared to have traveled several miles to the 300 block of Laburnum Road with friends in order to seek out another man and confront him over a girl, DeCoursey said. State troopers stopped a car leaving the area around 11:30 with Goff inside, apparently suffering from a head injury.
Cassilly said that because no charges will be sought against the man who hit Goff, the homicide will not count against the county as a murder.
