A Baltimore police sergeant was back in surgery Friday morning, one day after being shot multiple times by a masked gunman who tried to rob him while he was off-duty and standing on his front lawn, a police spokesman said.
Baltimore Police spokesman Detective Donny Moses provided no additional information on the condition of Sgt. Isaac Carrington, 43 and a 22-year veteran of the department. At a news conference hours after the Thursday afternoon attack, a hospital spokesman said Carrington was on life support after the initial surgery.
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At the time Carrington was “slightly more stable,” but faces a “long, protracted course ahead,” said Dr. Thomas M. Scalea at the evening news conference outside the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Scalea said some of the wounds are “in the torso, some are in the extremities.”
Police are searching for the shooter and are asking for the public’s help.
“More than any time, we need community support and information about who committed this heinous, cowardly act that hurt one of our police officers who serves and protects every single day,” Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said.
The department first received a call about the shooting at 3:24 p.m. in the 5600 block of Summerfield Ave. in Frankford.
Harrison said Carrington was standing outside his home speaking with a neighbor when a car, believed to be an Acura, pulled onto the street and at least one masked male pulled out a gun and attempted to rob them.
The neighbor threw what he had to the ground and took off running, while Carrington began running in the opposite direction, Harrison said. The gunman followed Carrington and shot him multiple times, the commissioner said.
An ambulance arrived almost immediately and Carrington was transported from the scene in “less than one minute,” Assistant Fire Chief Tavon Claggett said.
Keren Mason, 57, said her mother heard six shots before seeing a car speed away from the scene.
Her husband, Horace Mason, 59, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1992, said the area is mostly a quiet neighborhood, but there are problems with crime in areas surrounding the neighborhood off Frankford Avenue and Belair Road.
Carrington is the third Baltimore Police employee to be injured in a robbery in recent weeks.
Deputy Commissioner Daniel Murphy and his wife were robbed July 19 near Patterson Park by a group of males, two of whom are 16 and have been charged in that incident and two others. Police said that five days later, a 59-year-old civilian employee of the department was assaulted and robbed while walking in the Jonestown neighborhood. Video of the incident showed three youths surround and then punch the employee, knocking him down and kicking him until he appeared to become unconscious. Police have since charged a 15-year-old boy as a juvenile with first degree assault and robbery.
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Thursday’s incident is also the second shooting of a police officer in Baltimore in the past month, after Sgt. Bill Shiflett was injured by a gunman who also killed David Caldwell, 52, an employee at a methadone clinic on Maryland Avenue on July 15.
Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young echoed Harrison’s call for help from the community.
“We need the community’s support,” he said. "Broad-daylight shootings and murders in the city of Baltimore is totally unacceptable,” he said.
Young said Carrington is a husband, father and an officer who has chosen to be a city resident.
“We want our officers to keep living in the city and if things like this keep happening they won’t want to,” Young said.
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City Council President Brandon Scott visited the hospital Thursday evening before speaking at a town hall event. He told the crowd he’s known the family of the officer his entire life but did not immediately provide additional details.
Amanda Hils, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said that the agency’s Baltimore field division is assisting Baltimore Police in the investigation, but referred all other questions to police. Dave Fitz, an FBI Baltimore spokesman, said his agency is also assisting.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, the union that represents rank-and-file city police officers, said via Twitter that First Vice President Ken Butler and Sgt. William MacDonald were headed to Shock Trauma to offer support to the injured sergeant, his family and colleagues.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan asked for prayers for the officer “as he fights for his life.”
But in a statement, Hogan added: "Thoughts and prayers alone are not enough. We have been pushing to get these violent shooters off the streets. Now is the time for city and legislative leaders to finally join us and support our efforts.”
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Hogan’s spokesman said the governor was referring to referencing his legislation on repeat offenders using firearms.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby also wrote in a tweet she has reached out to Harrison and Young to lend support.
The Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, which recently held a news conference discussing increased collaboration with the police department, tweeted about the shooting.
“Please, put down the guns. You may save a life, including your own,” the tweet said.
The office recently announced indictments against 90 defendants on gun and drug charges. Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hur said last week that the cases represent a coordinated effort between federal prosecutors and Baltimore Police to address the city’s violence.
Anyone with information is asked to call homicide detectives at 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers tip line, at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
Baltimore Sun reporters Kevin Rector, Ian Duncan and Colin Campbell contributed to this article.