Two Baltimore police officers are recovering from wounds they suffered in a gunbattle with a heavily armed suspect outside a nightclub early Sunday morning, authorities said.
The suspect, 28-year-old Curtis Blache, opened fire on five officers in the 400 block of East Lorraine Avenue about 3:15 a.m. Sunday after leading police on a vehicle and foot chase, police said.
Blache had two guns, reloaded at least once and was wearing reinforced body armor, police said.
“Body armor almost doubles the body weight and it?s very uncomfortable,” Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld said. “It says something about the magnitude of this incident.”
Police suspect Blache of shooting a man outside a nightclub near North Charles Street and Lafayette Avenue just after 3 a.m. Officer Anthony Jobst, 47, heard the gunshots and spotted a white Audi speeding away from the club, which police did not name.
Jobst and other officers found the Audi crashed on East Lorraine, where Blache opened fire, police said.
Jobst was struck in the foot, and Officer Hayden Gross, 27, was grazed in the leg. Both were taken to area hospitals and are expected to recover.
Blache suffered gunshot wounds to the upper torso and was not expected to survive, police said.
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon said the city is “blessed our officers are safe.”
“It was very obvious these officers were doing their job,” Dixon said. “It?s clear we have to stay focused on getting illegal guns off the street.”
The man wounded outside the club, identified as Rico Austin, 27, was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive.
Body armor is illegal in Baltimore, said policespokesman Sterling Clifford, who described the gunfight as similar to “something out of a bad TV show.”
All the officers involved are on routine administrative leave, Clifford said.
