Carjacking Suspect Struck Baltimore Detective & Tried To Disguise Himself With Restaurant Apron: Court Documents

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A 23-year-old Reisterstown man suspected of carjacking a Baltimore detective this week attacked the detective before taking his unmarked vehicle, according to charging documents obtained Thursday by WJZ.

Citing surveillance footage, the court documents accuse Trevon Gardner of striking Det. Aaron Cain on Tuesday evening and attacking the detective while he lay on the ground.

After wrecking the car about a half-mile away, Gardner allegedly tried to disguise himself by donning a restaurant apron.

Gardner, who was taken into custody along with an alleged accomplice following Tuesday's episode, is charged with armed carjacking, carjacking, first- and second-degree assault on a police officer and other offenses related to the episode.

The charges stem from a sequence of events that unfolded shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday outside a 7-Eleven convenience store on South Hanover Street.

Detectives investigating a call about a carjacking-turned-police shooting reviewed surveillance footage, which showed Det. Cain walking to his unmarked Ford Fusion, which was parked outside the store. A trio of men could be seen walking toward the vehicle, one of them armed with a handgun, court documents show.

At some point, the armed suspect struck Cain in the upper body, knocking him to the ground. Footage showed the man standing over the detective and either punching or kicking him as he lay on the pavement and then taking something from him.

As the group sped away in Cain's vehicle, the detective got to his feet and opened fire toward the fleeing vehicle, which crashed and flipped onto his roof near the corner of Insulator Drive and West Cromwell Street, roughly a half-mile away.

No one was struck by the detective's gunfire.

Afterward, the suspects bailed out of the vehicle and took off on foot. Gardner allegedly ran to a nearby restaurant, where he ditched some of his clothes and donned a restaurant aprons in an apparent effort to disguise himself.

He and an alleged accomplice, described by police as a 16-year-old, were taken into custody near the scene of the car wreck. The third suspect got away and remained on the loose as of Thursday afternoon.

"That incident, in particular, I will say, was gross. These people need to be booked and put in jail," Amisa Asima said Thursday in South Baltimore. "We're not safe. Look at me. If a police officer can be [carjacked], how about me? I'm not in uniform."

A handgun containing nine live rounds was recovered near the scene of the crash.

Gardner was wearing the restaurant's apron and one flip-flop at the time of his arrest, records show, and a matching flip-flop was found inside the vehicle.

The 23-year-old remains in custody while awaiting trial. It is unclear what charges the teen faces.

"I think it's a lack of ownership from the parents also. It's time for these guys and the people in the city to stand up," Carolton Brooks told WJZ Thursday. "I think it's a lack of ownership for the mayor's department--City Hall. It's time to stand up--as a community, as Baltimore. It's time to stand up for our city."

The FBI Baltimore office Thursday announced it is "working closely" with the DEA, ATF, Homeland Security, Baltimore City Police, and Baltimore County Police "to combat" recent carjackings in the region.

In:
• Baltimore Police Department
• Carjacking
• Baltimore City