We don't know whether Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba was drunk — or even whether he had been drinking — when he shot Iraq war veteran Tyrone Brown early Saturday morning in an alley behind a Mount Vernon night club. He refused an alcohol test and has not made a statement. Police have been interviewing people in area bars but haven't said yet whether the off-duty cop had been drinking.
Ultimately, though, it probably doesn't make much difference. What they have said is they have turned up no evidence that Officer Tshamba should have felt his life was in danger during an argument after Mr. Brown, in a joke gone awry, patted or groped, depending on whose account you believe, the buttocks of Mr. Tshamba's girlfriend.
That's the only question that really matters, and to the police department's credit, it has swiftly referred the matter to the Baltimore City State's Attorney's office to consider whether charges should be filed. The public is always suspicious about how well the police department investigates its own, and this quick action should be reassuring.
It would be even better if city State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy were to ask one of her colleagues in the surrounding jurisdictions to take over the case. That's because Baltimore police and prosecutors routinely work together on cases in the city, and the professional relationships between them should not be an issue in the inquiry. Assigning the job to an outside prosecutor would protect the investigation from any taint of conflict of interest.
What is known so far about the incident certainly raises questions about Mr. Tshamba's fitness for duty the night of the killing. Chantay Kangalee, Mr. Brown's sister and a witness to the shooting, said her brother's inappropriate touching of the officer's girlfriend provoked the incident, but she claims he quickly apologized when confronted by Officer Tshamba. According to her, Mr. Brown was backing away from the officer with his hands in the air when Officer Tshamba let loose a fusillade of 13 bullets, striking the victim six times in the chest and groin. He died less than an hour later at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
Ms. Kangalee's account is disturbing not only because it suggests that Officer Tshamba was not in a life-threatening situation when he drew and fired his department-issued weapon but also because of the implication he was overreacting to a perceived slight to his authority and manhood according to the violent code of the streets, which requires a response of maximum physical violence to the smallest sign of personal disrespect. By her account, Officer Tshamba acted in accordance with the very code of lawlessness that as an officer he was sworn to combat.
In light of this weekend's events, the department should review the action it took in the wake of a 2005 incident in which Officer Tshamba shot a man in the foot while drunk. That shooting was ruled justified; prosecutors determined that he legitimately felt at risk, but a police spokesman said he was sanctioned internally for having his gun while intoxicated. The department needs to consider whether he should have been allowed to stay on the force at all after that shooting.
The case of Officer Tshamba also brings into focus a shortcoming in the Baltimore department's policies on when officers should carry their weapons. The department says officers should carry their guns when off duty and when in the city but should not do so if they are going to be inebriated. But what does that mean in practice? Is it OK to carry your gun if you have one drink? Two? Four?
Certainly, the combination of alcohol and automobiles can be just as deadly as booze and guns, yet we assume people can exercise reasonably good judgment about when it's safe to drive, and we don't make rules about whether police — or anyone else — can carry their car keys into a bar. But the question is more complicated when it comes to an officer's service weapon. You can leave your car at the bar and take a cab home, but officers can't decide they've had one too many and hand their guns over to the bartender. No matter what the investigation turns up about Officer Tshamba's state of sobriety on Saturday morning, the department should take the occasion to tighten their rules to say that if officers expect to drink alcohol at all, they must leave their weapons at home.