A public works employee on his way to fix a pothole in West Baltimore was shot in the face yesterday afternoon, apparently hit by a stray bullet fired by one of several men engaged in a nearby gunbattle, police said.
Jesse Wiley, 45, who lives in East Baltimore, was in serious condition last night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he underwent surgery yesterday afternoon.
Investigators said he had been shot once in the chin, and the bullet lodged in the left side of his neck. Police said the wound was not life-threatening.
"The guy was just trying to make a decent living and in the middle of the daytime, he gets shot in the mouth," said Capt. Michael J. Andrew of the Western District. "If you can figure that out, explain it to me."
Mr. Wiley and his partner, Richard Smith, 47, who each have worked more than 25 years for the city, had just finished talking with a supervisor in the 1700 block of N. Mount St. The supervisor directed them to a pothole on North Avenue.
Just as Mr. Wiley -- who works in the highway department for the Department of Public Works -- climbed into his yellow Thermo Pot-Hole Patching Truck, parked just south of Westwood Avenue, shots were fired from a block away.
"I didn't even see which direction they were coming from," Mr. Smith said. "My partner fell over on me. I thought he was just ducking the bullets."
Captain Andrew said it appeared that Mr. Wiley was hit by a stray bullet fired from between 150 and 175 feet down the street. At least one man was firing from the southwest corner of North Mount and Presbury streets with a .380-caliber weapon, toward the city truck, and others returned fire in the opposite direction with a 9-mm handgun.
Police recovered five shell casings from the west side of Mount Street, but they did not know how many shots actually were fired.
The bullet that hit Mr. Wiley passed through the truck's windshield, just left of the steering wheel. No arrests were made.
"It is a rare occurrence," said Vanessa Pyatt, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works. "Security is always an issue with us."