Two Baltimore County police sergeants shot a Dundalk man yesterday morning after he allegedly hurled dirty syringes, cartridges and a fire extinguisher at them from a second-floor porch and then lunged at them with a butcher knife.
Michael Thomas DeLoach, 35, of the 200 block of Baltimore Ave. was in serious but stable condition at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center last night, where he was taken by helicopter with chest and abdominal wounds after the 8:30 a.m. confrontation with police outside his home.
Police spokesmen said the incident at the second-floor rowhouse apartment began with a 6 a.m. call to police for domestic trouble, which was handled routinely.
Two hours later, a 33-year-old woman who had moved in only three days before decided to leave the apartment, police said. A male voice called and asked for police help, reporting that the woman's boyfriend said he had taken pills and planned to hang himself from the second-floor rear porch.
When officers arrived, police said, they saw a man on the porch. A police spokesman said the man threw two syringes at the officers, saying they were filled with AIDS-contaminated blood. Then he went back into the house and emerged with a fire extinguisher and two cartridges, which he also hurled down at the three officers, police said.
The man returned to the apartment once again, police said, and emerged with two 10-inch butcher knives. This time, police said, he walked down the porch steps toward them and yelled, "You're going to have to shoot me" and "I'm going to make you kill me."
The officers backed out of the yard and into the alley, about 35 yards away from the house, police spokesmen said.
There they persuaded the man to put down one knife by offering to go to the front of the rowhouse to get his girlfriend.
But after one officer left to get her, a police spokesmen said, the man charged the two remaining officers, Sgts. Drake Roche, 31, and Clifford Hisker, 35. Each fired once, striking the man in the chest and abdomen.