Holly MatkinBaltimore, MD – A U.S. Marshal is in intensive care on life support after being shot in the torso while serving an arrest warrant on a “high-risk fugitive” on Thursday morning.
“We’re very hopeful, but you just never know. It’s just too early,” R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Dr. Thomas Scalea told reporters later that afternoon, referring to the wounded marshal’s prognosis.
“I’d really like this to be the last time I have to walk up here and do this, but that’s not likely to happen…I am…It’s really…It’s a little bit too much,” Scalea said before abruptly walking away from the podium.
The series of events leading up to the shooting began at approximately 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 30, when a security guard at the Compare Foods grocery store at the Alameda Marketplace became enraged over the amount of the paycheck he received, The Baltimore Sun reported.
“He was enraged that his pay was incorrect,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said at the time. “That’s the genesis for this complaint, and that’s the genesis for the call to the officers about an armed suspect inside of the store.”
Police were met with gunfire when they arrived at the scene and ended up shooting back at the suspect, Commissioner Harrison said.
A store employee was shot in the arm during the shootout, but investigators were not immediately certain who fired the round that hit the employee, The Baltimore Sun reported.
The employee’s wounds were not life-threatening, and neither of the officers were injured during the attack, Commissioner Harrison said.
The gunman managed to escape, and it was unclear whether or not he was struck by the officers’ gunfire.
Investigators identified the shooter as 34-year-old Dontae Green, WBFF reported.
A warrant for his arrest was subsequently issued for 19 offenses in connection with the grocery store shootout, to include armed robbery, firearms violations, and attempted murder, according to the news outlet.
At approximately 6:45 a.m. on Thursday, Baltimore police and members of the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force responded to a residence in the 1400-block of Mount Street to serve the warrant on Green, WBFF reported.
They announced themselves and knocked on the door, then made entry into the house, according to police.
As they went inside, Green allegedly opened fire, hitting one of the marshals in the abdomen, WBFF reported.
U.S. Marshals Capital Area Regional Task Force Commander Don Snider said the shooter was hiding in a closet when he began shooting at police, according to CNN.
The wounded marshal was rushed to Shock Trauma, where he underwent surgery, WBFF reported.
He remained in intensive care on life support on Thursday afternoon.
Commander Snider did not release the wounded marshal’s name, but said he is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a member of the special operations task force, CNN reported.
Green was fatally shot by police during the exchange of gunfire at the residence.
The Baltimore Police Department is conducting the ongoing investigation into the officer-involved shooting.
Sandy Malone
