A lawyer hired by one of the women wounded during a police shooting that left an officer and another man dead said his client was struck in the head, disputing accounts from authorities that the three surviving victims were struck only in their extremities.
The woman, Jasmine Graves, 22, was not seriously injured, said attorney Michael A. Pulver. He said the bullet did not penetrate her skull, indicating that it may have been a graze wound. Still, the discrepancy adds further confusion to a complicated case still being sorted out by homicide detectives.
A Baltimore police spokesman was unable to confirm the lawyer's account.
Pulver declined to make his client available for an interview, and he would not detail what the woman told homicide detectives who are investigating the incident, in which four police officers mistook a plainclothes colleague for an assailant and shot and killed him.
The attorney did say that the erroneous details attributed to his client add to the argument for turning the entire investigation over to an outside agency. "No matter what happens, the public will say it's not a credible investigation," he said.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has ordered an outside review of the case, but the criminal part of the probe remains in the hands of city homicide detectives and the Baltimore state's attorney's office. Details of the scope of the independent review and who will conduct it have yet to be made public.
The Jan. 9 shooting outside Select Lounge on North Paca Street has left city police in anguish. On Wednesday, during the funeral service for Officer William H. Torbit Jr., Rawlings-Blake called the shooting "a tragedy that shook us to our deepest core."
Torbit was in plainclothes trying to break up a fight outside the club when police said he was pushed to the ground and was being severely beaten. He pulled out his gun and shot a man six to eight times. At the same time, four uniformed officers, not realizing Torbit was a fellow officer, shot him fatally.
Also killed was Sean Gamble, 22, who police believe was the man Torbit was shooting at. Police have not released the names of the three female bystanders who were wounded by stray or ricocheting bullets fired by the officers.
In all, police said, 41 bullets were fired amid the crowd in what they described as a violent, chaotic scene, with officers fearing for their safety and calling for help, bringing dozens of police racing to the scene. It's unclear whether anyone there knew a plainclothes officer was among the crowd.
The shooting has prompted city police to reconsider how plainclothes officers are used, and until more study can be done, commanders have ordered many police who wear civilian clothes while on duty to put on uniforms or jackets that clearly identify them as law enforcement.
Officials have not released many new details of the case in the past few days, anticipating lawsuits and awaiting what has amounted to a complex investigation. The four officers who fired at Torbit have been placed on desk duty and are being represented by police union lawyers, who have said their clients provided written statements to investigators.
Pulver, who first told Fox 45 about his client being struck in the head, said Thursday that he did not want Graves to speak publicly to avoid tipping off city officials to her version of events. He did stress that his client has cooperated and has spoken at length to homicide detectives, and that he is awaiting the results of the police investigation before deciding whether to take further action.
Questions have also surfaced regarding ambulance response times to the shooting. Pulver said Graves has complained about delays in her treatment and wondered whether the officer received better and quicker help than the civilian victims. Gamble's relatives have raised similar concerns.
Police have routinely been using 1:15 a.m. as the time of the incident. Fire Chief James S. Clack said in an e-mail to The Baltimore Sun that the first call from police requesting a paramedic came at 1:31 a.m.
Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi offered additional details Thursday. He said the first 911 call for a fight at the club came at 1:15 a.m. He said the first shots were fired between 1:30 a.m. and 1:31 a.m.
The fire chief provide this account of response times:
The first ambulance and firetruck were dispatched at 1:32 a.m. and arrived three minutes later. A paramedic supervisor was dispatched at 1:33 a.m. and arrived at 1:37 a.m. Two ambulances were sent over the next few minutes, all arriving by 1:39 a.m. An additional two ambulances were sent to the scene at 1:51 a.m. and 1:52 a.m., and arrived by 1:59 a.m.
Clack said patients were taken to hospitals starting at 1:45 a.m. and up to 2:10 a.m. The chief, citing the investigation, declined to say which ambulance transported which patient. Ambulances do sometimes remain at scenes for what seem like extended periods as paramedics work to stabilize patients and administer care.