Baltimore officer shoots armed man after foot chase near Erdman Shopping Center, officials say

A man is in critical condition after a Baltimore Police officer shot him on Thursday afternoon after he pointed a weapon at the officer, police said.

Col. Ryan Lee said during a news conference that the officer was working crime suppression when he approached a man walking near Erdman Avenue around 12:16 p.m. The man fled from the officer, who then chased him on foot, Lee said.

At one point, the man turned and pointed a weapon at the officer, Lee said, and the officer responded by shooting the man.

Lee said police recovered a semiautomatic handgun from the scene in the 3900 block of Erdman Avenue, which is in the Belair-Edison neighborhood of East Baltimore.

It’s unclear if the man fired the weapon. Lee said the officer was not injured.

Dozens of officers and detectives scattered across the parking lot outside of the Erdman Shopping Center and along Erdman Avenue.

Officers removed ballot boxes from a bullet-riddled white Toyota Camry, but the boxes were unrelated to the shooting, said Lindsey Eldridge, a Police Department spokesperson.

Clifford Tatum, director of the Baltimore City Board of Elections, said in a statement that a contractor was retrieving the ballots from the nearby drop box location at 3801 Erdman Avenue when the shooting occurred.

“Today a Baltimore City Board of Elections contractor was an innocent bystander in the vicinity of an officer involved shooting on Erdman Avenue,” Tatum said. “The contractor was uninjured. All ballots that were in the contractor’s possession have been retrieved by the Board of Elections and are secure.”

Thursday’s police shooting was the 10th in Baltimore this year, marking the most times police have opened fire since 2016, when there were 11 police shootings, according to a Banner analysis.

“This is a traumatic incident for this neighborhood,” said Mayor Brandon Scott, who responded to the scene. “We will not have individuals willingly walking around carrying firearms and pulling a firearm out in a place right next to a library, right next to a childcare center where there could have been children or elderly there.”

The entire area was covered in crime tape, and there were over a dozen markers for shell casings on the street. Some shoppers coming in and out of the Save-A-Lot stopped to observe the commotion, a few expressing exasperation.

The officer was working overtime on crime suppression “because of concerns in and around the neighborhood,” said Lee. There was a fatal shooting in the neighborhood earlier in the week.

Staff with the State’s Attorney Office were also on the scene with police detectives who were reviewing body camera footage.

Baltimore Banner reporters Emily Opilo and Justin Fenton contributed to this article.

This article has been updated.