The article "City officer had previous alcohol-related shooting" (June 7) says Officer Ghaiji A. Tshamba was disciplined internally because he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of a 2005 shooting. This past Saturday, after firing his weapon 13 times at an unarmed man and killing him, the officer refused to take a breath test to determine whether he had been drinking.

In Maryland, if you refuse to take a breath test after being pulled over due to a suspicion of driving under the influence, your driver's license will be suspended for 120 days for a first offense and one year for a subsequent offense, or instead of a license suspension, you may be allowed to drive if you install and maintain an ignition interlock device on your car for at least a year. I read that in most cases if you refuse the test you will be arrested.

After the first offense of being under the influence did Mr. Tshamba have to go through any of this? Now that there is a possible second offense, will his drivers license be suspended for at least a year? Will he still be allowed to "carry his gun while intoxicated"? What kind of license does one have to have for that?

David Gosey, Towson