Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Wednesday morning that there will be an external review of Sunday's shooting downtown that injured four people and killed an on-duty officer and unarmed civilian.
Police also ordered late Tuesday that they will require all plainclothes officers in district units to wear uniforms amid a slew of changes pending the completion of the inquiry into the shooting, according to the department's chief spokesman.
At Wednesday's Board of Estimates meeting, Rawlings-Blake said she was "very concerned by initial facts that indicate only police weapons were discharged" Sunday outside the Select Lounge in the 400 block of N. Paca St. as officers tried to quell an unruly crowd.
Officer William H. Torbit Jr. was killed by friendly fire when four officers shot at him after seeing him fire his weapon, according to police and sources. Civilian Sean Gamble, 22, was also killed and three women were shot and injured.
"The police investigation and the outside review will help us understand exactly what happened and help us learn from it and make sure that nothing like it happens again," she said in a statement.
Ryan O'Doherty, a spokesman for the mayor, said officials were reaching out to gauge availability and interest from other agencies, and a decision could be made next week.
Meanwhile, police moved to establish a more cohesive policy on how plainclothes officers operate and what they can wear, department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Plainclothes officers will be required to wear uniforms, while detectives in the department's elite Violent Crimes Impact Section will have to wear identifiable vests or jackets. Commanders are also reviewing how such officers respond to large crowds.
Torbit worked in the Central District operations unit, and he was on duty when he responded to a distress call from officers trying to disperse a crowd at the Seton Hill club. Torbit found himself in distress, as well, overcome by a large crowd, according to witnesses and sources.
When officers saw a man in street clothes shooting a handgun, they shot at him. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said 41 rounds were fired between five officers, including Torbit. Four officers have been placed on routine administrative suspension and have yet to give statements to investigators, though an attorney said they plan to.
Plainclothes officers differ from undercover officers, who use an assumed identity. Plainclothes officers often drive or ride in unmarked cars, giving them an extra jump on suspected drug sellers and users, allowing them to get close enough to see transactions. Even in plain clothes, they are supposed to wear badges around their neck and they carry police equipment.
While officers who work in district-based "flex" and operational units will now be required to wear uniforms, detectives from the Violent Crimes Impact Section, who do drug investigations and investigate violent crime in East, West and Northwest Baltimore, may continue to wear street clothes but will don police vests or jackets.
Undercover officers, meanwhile, will have to communicate their "operational plan" through the chief of detectives, which will be distributed to districts.
"We will wait on the final verdict of the shooting investigation," Guglielmi said. "But we want to make sure that we're using plainclothes officers in the safest manner possible."
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