The state?s NAACP is calling on Attorney General Doug Gansler to create a task force on police-involved shootings in Maryland.
Gerald Stansbury, president of the Maryland State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Tuesday that recent police-involved shootings in Baltimore City and Howard County highlight the need for “independent” analysis of the shootings.
“Just as Attorney General Gansler appointed a task force to look at Voting Irregularities we need a task force that will look at recent police shootings and make recommendations on how to reduce these shootings,” Stansbury said in a statement.
Stansbury said further review is needed for the shootings of veteran Baltimore City Police Officer Norman Stamp, 65, and Howard County resident Pearl Wardell Harris, 62, who lived at a senior citizens? complex.
Stamp was shot to death during a fight outside the Haven Place club on North Haven Street in Southeast Baltimore by a fellow police officer.
Police say Stamp was wearing brass knuckles and pulled out his gun before he was shot, though his supporters question that version of events.
Harris physically lunged with a knife at police, causing one officer to fire a non-fatal shot at Harris? lower torso, police said.
Stansbury said he hoped Gansler would create a panel made up of representatives from civil rights and law-enforcement agencies from around the state.
“Our intent is not to have this task force look at these cases individually but rather to determine whether or not we have a systemic problem with police shootings in Maryland,” he said.
Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Gansler, said
Carl Snowden, the office?s director for civil rights, would be glad to meet with the NAACP to discuss the issue.
