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Baltimore Police released the name of the man shot and killed by police early Monday morning after more than six hours of negotiations, and identified the 24-year-veteran who fired the fatal shot.
Marcus Martin, 40, of Baltimore was shot by Officer Jeffery Archambault, who is assigned to SWAT, the police department said in a news release. The release said Martin was killed after he responded to unspecified “tactical measures deployed by SWAT,” by firing a shotgun just after 3:15 a.m., with Archambault returning fire.
Police did not respond to questions about what kinds of measures were taken before Martin responded.
Officers were sent to the 6000 block of Alta Ave. around 9:15 p.m. Sunday for reports of an armed person. When Northeastern District officers arrived in the Glenham-Belhar neighborhood, they were met at the front door by a woman and teenage girl, police said. They told the officers that Martin had assaulted them, police said.
Officers had the two women, along with a teenage boy, leave the home while Martin stayed inside. Police said they were told that Martin suffered from mental health issues and had “numerous firearms, as well as ammunition inside the residence.”
Authorities said SWAT officers and members of the hostage negotiation team were sent to the neighborhood and that both teams were “able to communicate” with Martin. Police said an officer who is “trained specifically in Crisis Intervention” also was on scene.
Just after 3:15 a.m., police said, Martin “responded to tactical measures deployed by SWAT by discharging a shotgun.” That’s when Archambault fired his gun, killing Martin.
Police previously said Martin came to the door and opened fire on police officers who fired back, killing him. The department denied a reporter’s request to obtain a copy of the Sunday 911 call, with a spokesperson saying that the shooting remained an ongoing investigation.
While police did not elaborate on their “tactical measures,” Martin’s family said in a GoFundMe page that police “busted down the door” and sent a robot inside the house. The family wrote that Martin did not shoot at police but instead shot the robot before police killed him.
In the fundraiser for funeral expenses, his family said Martin struggled with mental life his whole life and “has been overlooked time and time again.”
“Marcus Martin lost his life due to an ongoing mental illness which resulted in the police using excessive force. Because of this, he was pronounced dead on the scene,” according to the GoFundMe page. “Losing a loved one to mental illness is very hard and knowing how close he is to my heart and not being able to properly bury him is a pain that is indescribable.”
Baltimore police were called to the home once before, at around 10 a.m. April 11, 2018, for a reported “Behavioral Crisis,” according to a call for service report obtained by The Baltimore Sun.
The report says no police services were necessary to respond to the call, but does not divulge the exact nature of the incident.
Monday’s incident was the fourth fatal shooting by police in Baltimore this year.
In February, U.S. Marshals attempting to serve a warrant shot and killed a man who fired on them in Sandtown-Winchester. A few weeks later, police shot and killed a man in an Inner Harbor parking garage who had wounded a civilian and pulled his gun on officers. Most recently, in mid-May, police shot and killed a 49-year-old man after he threatened a family member with a knife in his Broadway East home.
Cornelius Butler, who lives across from the home where Monday morning’s shooting took place, said he heard a boom around 3 a.m. A few minutes later, he heard people yelling outside.
He said his aunt, who lives with him, woke up around 3:15 a.m. to use the restroom, and asked him the cause of the commotion. At that point, he wasn’t sure what happened, but he knew something was amiss at his neighbor’s home.
He looked outside and saw his neighbor’s door had been knocked off its hinges.
One couple, who asked not to be named out of concerns for their safety, said the hourslong standoff was hard to ignore.
After the SWAT officers arrived, they told the couple to stay inside their home.
They could hear the officers repeatedly try to communicate with Martin, who was inside the home across the street, to draw him out.
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The couple said officers tried to use a wheeled robot to breach the basement window, but it appeared unsuccessful. That’s when a truck parked outside the home left the scene and returned with an extended battering ram device attached to its front bumper, the couple said. Then, the officers breached the home’s front door.
The couple recalled that Martin yelled from inside: “Who are you?”
Hours later, they heard two shots, and they heard Martin cry out. Several minutes later, an ambulance arrived.
The ACLU of Maryland is calling for a “full investigation that is transparent to the community.” The civil rights group is asking for camera footage to be released to the public and for “any officers engaged in misconduct” to be held accountable.
“Baltimore City, all major jurisdictions in [Maryland], need to have fully funded mental health teams that can be deployed when people are in crisis, including situations when people are armed,” the ACLU of Maryland said in a tweet Tuesday. “Again, we see time and again armed white people’s lives being valued more by police and surviving even active shooter situations.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Phil Davis contributed to this article.