The second-floor motel room in Pikesville had been transformed into a print shop, churning out fake U.S. currency, a money factory behind closed curtains.
But police and federal agents were on to the three men inside room 240, and were keeping watch.
Just after midnight Thursday, as a pair of detectives closed in, the men left the room and, when challenged, one pulled a gun. A firefight erupted, police said later, and the gunman went down, fatally wounded. The two other suspects were pursued and arrested nearby, one of them hiding under a trailer.
"I was scared to death," said Lois Kline, a school counselor in Rock River, Wyo., who was staying at the Ramada Baltimore West on Reisterstown Road with her husband and son and who was roused from sleep by ricocheting gunfire outside her window. "I knew they weren't firecrackers."
Hours later, with the motel quiet again, Baltimore County police said they had recovered a printing machine, paper and numerous counterfeit bills from the men's room. It was not clear how long the men had used the room, or how long they had been under surveillance by police detectives and agents from the U.S. Secret Service, which oversees enforcement of anti-counterfeiting laws.
Police said the trio were suspected of being part of an East Coast counterfeiting ring. They identified the dead man as Erik D. Stokes, 34, of the 3500 block of Derby Shire Circle in Windsor Mill. Police were waiting to release the identities of the other two men until they had been charged.
Just two weeks ago, Stokes was arrested by a Baltimore police officer who had spotted him driving the wrong way on South Street. Stokes was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, attempting to elude police, driving on a suspended license and other charges. He was released on $75,000 bail.
Stokes had been in and out of courtrooms for years. In 1994, he was sentenced to two years in prison on a battery charge, according to court records. He was also convicted in 2000 and 2005 of intent to manufacture and distribute drugs. In October 2009, he was convicted in Baltimore County Circuit Court of driving under the influence, and was sentenced to 18 months in jail, with credit for 183 days served.
Police have not released the names of the detectives involved in Thursday's shooting, neither of whom was injured. "We know both detectives drew their guns and fired," said Lt. Robert McCullough, a spokesman for the department, adding that it would not be clear which one had killed Stokes until ballistics tests and an autopsy are completed. He said that, as is customary in fatal shootings in which officers are involved, both detectives were placed on paid leave until the results of an investigation into the shooting are known.
The last fatal shooting involving county police took place on Dec. 15, McCullough said, when detectives who had been tailing a 39-year-old man shot and killed him in Northwest Baltimore. The detectives had followed the man, a suspect in an armed robbery, into the city, and when they attempted to arrest him the man fired a .50-caliber handgun, the detectives said.
At the Pikesville motel on Thursday morning, the gunfire awakened several hotel guests, some of whom claim to have heard at least a half-dozen rounds fired. Wanda Garneaux, who had arrived at the motel from upstate New York at about 11:45 p.m., said she and her son had just gone to bed when they heard the shots. Garneaux, a veteran of the war in Iraq, said she knew immediately it was gunfire.
"I grabbed my son, put him in the bathroom and closed the door," Garneaux said. "I called the front desk and asked them what was happening, and they played stupid. Then they called back and said the police were handling it. I looked out and saw cop cars and paramedics. And I saw a detective with his gun drawn, like he was looking for someone."
Behind the 107-room hotel after daybreak, a bullet hole was visible in the driver's door of a white Chevrolet Blazer, caught in the crossfire. Dried blood marked a small area of asphalt, along with soapy evidence that someone had tried to clean it up.
Tim Cravens, another guest, was looking at the patch of blood as he recalled that he had been with friends in his second-floor room when the noise erupted. "I heard shots," he said. "Then, within the next two, three minutes, I saw cop cars come pouring in from all directions. Then two, three firetrucks and ambulances. I came outside, and every single cop was screaming at me to go inside."
Because of the commotion, he said, "I was up all night because they were out here all night."
When asked which of the three counterfeiting suspects had rented room 240, the motel's general manager, Raveen Arora, said it was not clear who had done so. "We have a policy not to get involved," he said. "The hotel is not involved in anything."
Arora, smoking a cigarette near the site of the shooting, said the hotel was usually populated by "family folks" and that there was never any trouble. "It's very friendly here," he said.
A woman who identified herself only as Sandy said she had slept through the gunshots, but that she and her boyfriend had been awakened by a police helicopter swirling above. "We didn't know anything about a shooting," she said. "But I wish I could have gotten some of that money they were making."
In its latest annual report, the Secret Service said that in fiscal year 2009, the agency made 2,506 arrests domestically and assisted in 360 arrests abroad for counterfeiting offenses. It said its agents helped to remove more than $182 million in counterfeit U.S. currency from circulation, up $79 million from the previous fiscal year.
The report said that the widespread use of personal computers and advancements in digital printing technology "have provided more individuals the opportunity to manufacture a passable counterfeit note with relative ease." Approximately 62 percent of the counterfeit currency passed domestically in 2009 was produced using digital printing means, compared with less than 1 percent in 1995.
"You don't know what's going on in a person's room," said Albert Sims, who works in housekeeping and maintenance at the Pikesville motel. "And you don't know what they're taking into the rooms. You just rent the rooms out."
David D. Roberts, a professor of English at Iowa State University who was making his second visit to Baltimore, said that in terms of crime it was not much different than any other metropolitan area. He even found humor in recounting Thursday's incident near his hotel room.
"I was curled up between the two beds, whimpering like a puppy," he said. "If somebody gets shot, it's not going to be old David."
Towson Times reporter Bryan P. Sears contributed to this article.
nick.madigan@baltsun.com