Baltimore Police have identified the officer involved in a shooting earlier this week in Northwest Baltimore.
Per policy, the department identified the officer as 32-year-old Angel Richardson. She has been an officer since 2013 and is assigned to the Neighborhood Patrol Bureau and has not been involved in any prior shootings.
City records show Richardson was previously a firefighter/paramedic with the Baltimore Fire Department about nine years.
Police commanders said at a news conference Friday that Richardson feared for her life when she shot the unidentified man during a struggle Thursday night in the 4300 block of Pimlico Rd. The man is in a hospital and has not yet been charged.
Officers had attempted to pull over a van with its headlights off on Reisterstown Road when the driver fled and crashed near a senior center on Pimlico Road. Two occupants jumped out of the vehicle and ran - a juvenile was arrested without incident.
Richardson caught up the other suspect, who began to resist and may have "turned on the officer," Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said. He said she felt overpowered and had no choice but to shoot the man, who was found wounded on a porch of a home nearby.
"An officer is allowed as a last resort to defend themselves, their partner or the community," Rodriguez told reporters.