Sandy MaloneBaltimore, MD – A cell phone video of police trying to stop a car theft suspect also showed a mob of people racing toward the officers in the aftermath (video below).
Baltimore police told The Police Tribune the incident occurred at about 5:46 p.m. on March 20 after officers spotted a stolen vehicle parked in the 600 block of Laurens Street.
The officers set up surveillance on the stolen car and waited for someone to return to it.
Police watched as 32-year-old Vernon Jackson returned to the vehicle and got into it.
Baltimore police said that was when officers tried to intervene and stop the alleged car thief from leaving with the stolen vehicle.
Cell phone video of the incident showed at least five officers, some of them with weapons drawn, surrounded the stolen black Honda accord.
The video showed officers using retractable batons to try to break the windows of the vehicle and shouting for the driver to stop.
The driver ignored police commands and began backing up the vehicle with the officers around him dodging out of the way.
The video showed the car rammed into several police vehicles and fled the parking lot as officers jumped into cars to follow.
As Jackson was making his getaway, screaming and yelling can be heard in the background of the video and then somebody off camera yelled, “All the kids, back up!”
Then the screaming got louder as a large mob of people began rushing the parking lot where the police officers had tried to stop the stolen car, the video showed.
The video showed what appeared to be a group of at least 50 young adults running toward the officers as they screamed.
The officers didn’t appear to react the arriving mob as they got into their vehicle and departed the parking lot one at a time, the video showed.
Baltimore police told The Police Tribune that Jackson eventually bailed out of the stolen car and fled on foot.
He was apprehended by officers after a brief foot pursuit.
Jackson was arrested and charged with multiple counts of first- and second-degree attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and stolen auto, according to the Baltimore Police Department.
A spokesman for the Baltimore police told The Police Tribune that Jackson was being held in Central Booking awaiting arraignment.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below:
Police say this video reposted to the murder ink Instagram page depicts officers trying to apprehend a stolen car suspect. Despite what appeared to be a clean escape, police say he was apprehended and charged pic.twitter.com/tSV5mHTilG
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) March 21, 2022
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