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Hero Down: Baltimore County Officer Amy Caprio Murdered By Group Of Teens
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Perry Hall, MD – Baltimore County Police Officer Amy Caprio was murdered in the line of duty on Monday afternoon after she intercepted a carload of burglary suspects.

Dawnta Anthony Harris, 16, was charged as an adult with first-degree murder on Tuesday, police said.

Harris’ three juvenile accomplices were taken into custody on Tuesday morning, but details regarding their possible pending charges have not yet been released.

Officer Caprio, 29, stumbled upon a burglary in progress at approximately 2 p.m., while she was investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle, WJZ reported.

According to the Associated Press, police later discovered damage to a patio door at one residence in the area.

Court documents said that Harris admitted to investigators that he was driving a Jeep Wrangler, and that he was waiting in the vehicle while his three accomplices were committing a residential burglary.

When Officer Amy Caprio arrived in the area, Harris said he attempted to flee, but ended up in a cul-de-sac.

Officer Caprio pursued him, then exited her patrol vehicle and demanded that Harris get out of the Jeep, court documents said.

Harris said he opened the driver’s door partway, but that he closed the door again, and “drove at the officer,” the report read.

Tony Kurek said that his adult son was outside in the yard and witnessed the officer confronting the occupants inside a Jeep with her weapon drawn, the Associated Press reported.

Another neighbor, Dahle Amendt, said he was inside his home when heard the officer issuing commands to someone outside.

“I heard, ‘Get out of the car! Get out of the car! Get out of the car!’ at least three times, and then a pop,” Amendt said.

Kurek said that his son heard the same sound.

“The next thing he heard was a pop, and he saw the Jeep take off and run right over her,” he recounted.

“She basically landed almost in front of my mailbox,” Kurek told The Baltimore Sun.

The Jeep fled the scene, leaving skid marks on the street next to the dying officer.

Kurek called 911, as his other son began performing CPR on the fallen officer, he said.

“I had a very, very bad feeling that she was going or gone,” Kurek recalled. “She was young. It just breaks your heart.”

Officer Caprio, who would have been with the department for four years in July, was bleeding profusely when she was rushed to a nearby hospital.

She was pronounced dead at 2:50 p.m., WJZ reported.

Baltimore County Police Chief Terrence Sheridan said the fallen officer was wearing an activated body camera when she was killed, according to FOX News.

WBAL-TV investigative reporter Jayne Miller said that a source familiar with the investigation saw the footage, and said that the video “gives clear view” of Officer Caprio as she stood in the street.

“Vehicle comes at her, she fires one shot, get hit and thrown,” Miller recounted in a tweet.

Investigators located the suspects’ abandoned Jeep a short distance from where the incident occurred, and soon took Harris into custody.

After the three additional juvenile suspects were apprehended on Tuesday, they told detectives that they were responsible for a string of burglaries in the neighborhood, investigators said.

Officer Caprio was a December, 2014 graduate of the Baltimore County Police Department’s 140th recruit class, and began her career with the department’s Essex precinct, The Baltimore Sun reported.

She was assigned to the Parkville precinct at the time of her death, and had been named as the officer of the month in December of 2017.

“I’m just still grieving,” her husband, Tim Caprio said on Tuesday morning, according to The Baltimore Sun. “I don’t know, I just feel like talking about it is definitely better than not.”

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Baltimore County Police Officer Amy Caprio, both blood and blue. Thank you for your service.

Officer Amy Caprio, your life mattered.

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