A 21-year-old convicted car thief set to stand trial today on multiple illegal gun charges was arrested Tuesday in the fatal shooting of a city police officer, who was killed hours earlier outside his girlfriend?s West Baltimore home, authorities said.
Detective Troy Chesley, a 13-year veteran of the department, was fatally hit in the chest in an apparent robbery attempt after arguing with the suspect, Brandon Grimes, police said. Chesley came off duty at about 1 a.m. and had reached the steps of the house in the 4500 block of Fairfax Road, wearing plainclothes, when he came under fire.
“He placed himself back on duty” and shot back at his assailant as a police officer, said Paul Blair, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge, who joined dozens of police officers and relatives in the pre-dawn hours at Sinai Hospital after Chesley was pronounced dead there.
“I die a little bit, the city dies a little bit” whenever an officer is hurt, police commissioner Leonard Hamm said Tuesday afternoon. Referring to the leaders of the city?s criminal justice system he said, “We need to stop being petty … and concentrate on people like Brandon Grimes.”
Police jumped on Grimes? trail after discovering blood at the scene that didn?t match Chesley?s, suggesting the officer wounded his assailant, police said. Grimes, of the 800 block of Cator Avenue, whose adult record includes 17 arrests, Col. Fred Bealefeld said, was found under treatment for a gunshot wound to the lower leg at St. Agnes Hospital.
“It looks like he saw an opportunity,” Bealefeld said, describing what may have prompted theattack. “There?s no indication he knew in advance Officer Chesley.”
The West Forest Park block where the shooting occurred was quiet later Tuesday; a next-door neighbor spoke through the mail slot in her door and declined to comment on the case.
A man taping a shattered back window on a car outside said he didn?t want to talk about the incident, then walked into the home where he said it happened.
Chesley was a 1990 Baltimore City College graduate who leaves behind 12- and 14-year old sons ? one of whom?s mother died two years ago of a heart attack, officials said.
“His death will leave an irreplaceable void in their lives,” Mayor-designee Sheila Dixon said in a prepared statement.
“Loved doing his job, loved working,” Hamm said of Chesley, a “good, solid police officer” and a “good, solid man.” Chesley?s slaying is the latest in a string of attacks over the past several months on law enforcement officers regionally ? some who were on duty, and some not.
Blair said Chesley?s murder highlights how, in a city wrangling with crime, officers heading home after a day chasing criminals are “just facing what the average citizen faces.”
Grimes, who remained hospitalized under guard Tuesday, was arrested twice in a month last year on gun violations, and faced burglary, drugs and assault charges in other cases, according to court records. He made the $45,000 bail after his first gun arrest last year. The second time, prosecutors recommended that the amount go up to $500,000, according to the state?s attorney?s office.
“Mr. Grimes? continuing insistence on illegally carrying handguns indicates the danger he poses to the citizens of Baltimore city,” a prosecutor wrote at the time, “requiring the highest possible bail.”
Grimes pleaded guilty to car theft in 2004.
The last city police officer to die in the line of duty was Anthony Byrd.
Funeral arrangements for Chesley were not finalized Tuesday.
