The man who was shot last week by a Baltimore police officer was charged with assault and attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer, police announced Tuesday.
Terry Lewis, 40, was shot in the abdomen during a foot pursuit after police said he tried to wrestle an officer's gun away and redirect it at her as he fought off an arrest attempt.
At about 9 p.m. Thursday, police tried to pull over a silver 2008 Dodge Caravan that was driving without headlights. A patrol officer turned on his emergency lights but the van fled, lost control and hit a fence and front steps of the Renaissance Gardens Retirement home in the 4300 block of Pimlico Road in Northwest Baltimore.
Three people bailed from the crash, and officers chased them, arresting one suspect. Officer Angel Richardson, 32, a former nine-year Baltimore City Fire Department firefighter and paramedic, ran after Lewis, according to a police report.
Police said she chased Lewis near an alley behind the retirement home and ordered him to get on the ground when Lewis fought her and slipped out of his shirt as she tried to detain him. Richardson said she drew her service weapon on Lewis, according to a police report. She told investigators Lewis grabbed the gun and "then attempted to twist the weapon in an assumed attempt to point the weapon at her," the police report said.
Richardson told police that she told Lewis "I'm gonna shoot you" before she pulled the trigger and struck Lewis in the abdomen.
Police said the wounded Lewis escaped, jumping a fence and running up an alley, until police followed a trail of blood to a vacant home in the 2600 block of Loyola Northway where they found him hiding on the front porch.
Officers searching for Richardson radioed her, and she responded out of breath saying that she "shot him. He tried to take my gun," the police report stated. Officers who responded found her still clutching her gun. Police said it was the first time Richardson had shot a suspect since becoming a police officer in 2013.
All around, police said they saw clothing, money, suspected drugs, Richardson's Taser and its spare cartridge — all evidence of a struggle. Police ended up testing the alleged drugs, which turned out to be less than 10 grams of marijuana.
In an interview with Baltimore's Force Investigation Team, which reviews all police shootings, Lewis told a detective that the van wasn't his but an illegal taxi that he got into at Cold Spring Lane and Reisterstown Road. No officers were injured in the incident and a third occupant of the van was arrested after an officer Tased him, police said.
Two days later, a Baltimore police officer shot another suspect in South Baltimore, killing him.
Darin Hutchins, 26, was the man police said wielded a knife at a birthday party on Saturday in the 1900 block of McHenry St. Police said Hutchins had threatened partygoers and had been told to drop the knife multiple times when Officer Donald Gaff, 30, shot and killed him. The Force Investigation Team continues to review that shooting, as is protocol in all incidents where Baltimore officers use deadly force.
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