Baltimore police mourned the death of Detective Thomas G. Newman yesterday and struggled to comprehend the execution-style killing that authorities have linked to an earlier ambush of the veteran officer.

Throughout the department, officers said they felt deflated, depressed and vexed at the brazen attack on Newman, 37, who was off duty and walking out of a city tavern when two men approached him and opened fire Saturday morning, police said.

"My officers are devastated," said Maj. Antonio Williams, commander of the Western District and a former supervisor of Newman. "This wasn't supposed to happen. I spoke to my people about it yesterday, and they just had this glazed look over most of their faces. It's a shock. Just the idea of hearing one of our own was gunned down under these circumstances is tough."

Newman's death comes during a rough stretch of violence directed at city police officers and others battling crime in one of the country's most dangerous cities.

The ambush marked the third time in eight days that a city officer was shot, a period in which five were wounded. It also follows a fire-bombing last month that killed seven members of an East Baltimore family who had refused to ignore drug dealing in their neighborhood.

Mayor Martin O'Malley said that he, too, was trying to make sense of the recent shootings, even as the city's violent crime rate continues to drop.

"We are more accustomed to reading about this sort of thing in Colombia or some other place than in the United States," the mayor said. "With each of these, we need to become more resolute and not less. ... The best we can do is to send these sociopath predators to jail for as long as possible."

Despite pleas from the city police union to seek the death penalty, O'Malley is not likely to push the issue because he opposes capital punishment.

A spokeswoman for State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said prosecutors will review evidence and other factors before deciding what punishment to seek.

Three men have been charged with first-degree murder in the killing: Raymond Saunders, 22, of the 800 block of Fifth Ave., Halethorpe; and city residents Jovan J. House, 21, of the 2400 block of Dorton Court and Anthony A. Brown, 34, of the 600 block of W. Franklin St. All were being held yesterday at the city jail and are scheduled to appear at a bail review hearing today in Baltimore District Court.

City police linked the killing to an ambush of Newman in April last year, when Saunders' half-brother participated in the shooting of Newman on a dark South Baltimore street. The half-brother, Andre A. Travers, 25, and another man were convicted of attempted murder for shooting the off-duty officer; they were sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Police said Saunders spotted Newman in a Southeast Baltimore tavern and realized that he was the officer involved in the previous shooting. He left, found two friends and returned, police said.

It was unclear what role Saunders might have played in the shooting. Police said he gave a tape-recorded statement that implicated himself but "laid blame" for the shooting on the other suspects.

About 1:45 a.m. Saturday, Newman left Joe's Tavern in the 1000 block of Dundalk Ave. with a girlfriend and was approached by two men who began shooting without saying a word, police said. The woman was not injured.

The men stood over Newman's body, police said, and continued to fire. Newman was hit several times, suffering three wounds to the chest. Newman, a 12-year veteran, died a half-hour later at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Within hours, police had arrested House, Saunders and Brown. They found on House a Glock handgun that firearms examiners said they determined was used in the shooting.

House and Saunders are longtime friends who grew up in the city's Westport neighborhood. Both dropped out of high school and have drug-related convictions, but relatives said the young men would never have committed such a violent crime. Brown's family could not be reached.

"He's a very nice person," Catherine Williams said of House, her grandson. "He is not violent. ... He was really struggling hard to do the right thing."

Said Marjorie Dixon, Saunders' mother: "Through thick and thin, I taught them a lot of things. And one of them was not to kill. He would not have done this."

When Saunders was 13, his father died and the boy never recovered, his family said. He eventually quit school and took up drug dealing, following the path of his older brothers, relatives said. But last year, he turned a corner when his girlfriend got pregnant. He got a job and seemed to be on the right track, they said.

But on Nov. 11, Ories P. Cole, 17, a close friend who is an uncle of Saunders' 3-month-old daughter, was shot and killed in South Baltimore. That death and the killings over the years of several close friends seemed to derail Saunders' efforts to reshape his life, the family said.

Saunders then lost his job at a restaurant supply company and likely slipped back into the drug trade, they said.

His family said Saunders also struggled to deal with the prison terms of his half-brothers. Larry Travers, 27, was released from prison Wednesday after serving two years on a drug conviction; Andre Travers was sent to prison in June in the shooting of Newman.

"I was a role model to him," said Larry Travers, who survived being hit by five bullets one night in 1999. "And I tried to show him the problems I had. He took it hard when I went to prison. It was tough when Andre left."

Relatives do not believe the setbacks and his half-brother's prison term would have propelled Saunders to seek revenge.

"No way," Larry Travers said. "That's just bull."

The shooting took the life of a father of two young children who was known for his good humor and determination to round up criminals. In his early days as a drug detective, Newman was often sent into dangerous neighborhoods to make undercover buys and never refused an assignment.

Commanders often relied on him to investigate high-priority cases because they knew Newman could quickly penetrate drug organizations and topple them, former supervisors said.

"Tommy was very courageous," said Williams, his former supervisor in the drug unit. "You could send Tommy in there and know he'd do a thorough job."

After he was shot last year, Newman struggled to recover and pushed himself to return to the demanding task of serving warrants in a specialized unit that tracks down some of the city's most violent fugitives.

"It's kind of hard to put in words, but it showed what he was made of, how he was raised," said Maj. Russell N. Shea Jr., former commander of the unit. "He was committed."

Sgt. Deirtra Pitts, Newman's supervisor in the warrant squad, said she marveled at his ability to run down much younger and nimbler suspects, even as he continued to recover from the shooting and surgery.

But Pitts eventually urged him to transfer to a less demanding job - an idea that Newman found hard to accept.

Newman became a fraud investigator this year.

"Tommy was a cop to the bone," Pitts said. "He was a true police."

Dolly Dobrzycki, an office assistant in the Police Department's drug unit, developed a bond with Newman as he routinely "borrowed" Newport cigarettes from her. Dobrzycki said she saw Newman last week, for the final time, when he paid a visit to the drug unit. He was in high spirits, Dobrzycki said.

When they parted, she said, she told him to "be careful out there, kid."

Newman smiled, hugged Dobrzycki and replied, "Always, Miss Dolly."

Sun staff writer Julie Bykowicz contributed to this article.