Two men were shot by city police in separate incidents yesterday - each of whom is alleged to have balked at commands from officers fearing that he had a weapon.

In the first incident, a man was shot about 12:30 p.m. in a rowhouse in the 1500 block of N. Caroline St. during one of a series of drug raids in the Eastern District yesterday.

The man - whose identity had not been confirmed by police last night - was shot in a leg after he refused to obey an officer's order to show his hands and tried to retrieve something from a dresser drawer, said Maj. Gregory Eads, Eastern District commander.

The man engaged in a verbal exchange with officers before being shot, but what he said was not reported. He was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris was nearby at the time of the shooting, on a ride-along with officers during the raid - two blocks from the East Preston Street home where an arson fire claimed the lives of Angela and Carnell Dawson and five of their children. The blaze last month was believed to have been set in retaliation for the family's standing up to drug dealing in the neighborhood.

About eight hours after the Caroline Street raid, an unidentified man suspected of being armed was shot twice by a police officer in another East Baltimore incident. No gun was found on the man, police said.

Shortly after 8 p.m., two Eastern District officers driving in the 1800 block of E. Eager St. spotted a man fitting the description of a person they were told was armed and stopped him in front of a vacant rowhouse, said Ragina C. Averella, a police spokeswoman.

During a street interview, Averella said, the officers repeatedly ordered the man to remove his hands from his pockets, but he refused.

Averella said it wasn't certain if there was then a physical confrontation between the man and the officers or if he made a threatening move, but one officer pulled his .40-caliber Glock handgun and shot the man twice in the torso. Neither officer was hurt.

Police found drugs on the pavement, Averella said.

The man, described as in his 20s, was taken by ambulance to nearby Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he underwent surgery last night. His condition was not available.