Holly MatkinTowson, MD – Bodycam footage captured the moment when a gunman abruptly opened up an apartment door and opened fire on Baltimore County police earlier this month as they were responding to sounds of gunfire (video below).
The incident began at approximately 8:40 p.m. on June 4 when the Baltimore County Police Department (BCPD) received a report of “unknown trouble” at an apartment complex located in the 500-block of Virginia Avenue, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office (OAG) Independent Investigations Division said in the video released on Thursday.
Bodycam footage showed officers arriving at the scene to find the front doors of the building locked.
They asked residents sitting outside the door to open it for them just before gunshots rang out in the video.
Someone opened the doors and officers ran into the building and made their way up to the 11th floor “where the unknown trouble was reported to have occurred,” according to the OAG.
Police knocked on the door, which was opened by 66-year-old Joseph Robert Henry Thompson.
Thompson immediately began shooting at the officers with a handgun, the video showed.
BCPD Officer C. Klapka, Officer R. Fitzgerald, and Officer S. Johnson returned fire, hitting Thompson, the OAG said.
The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
A fourth officer was shot during the exchange of gunfire and was rushed to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the OAG.
The officer’s identity was not released.
Once they were inside the apartment, police found a female who was suffering from gunshot wounds.
She was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition, according to the OAG.
Police have not provided an update on the woman’s condition, WTTG reported.
The wounded officer has since been released from the hospital.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. Warning – Graphic Content:
Sandy Malone
