Police Release Video Of Officer-Involved Shooting Near Coppin State
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore City police have released another video of a shooting. This one involved an officer at Coppin State University and happened near the edge of campus.
A Coppin State University police officer just happened to be driving down the street when he found himself in the middle of a shootout.
The officer was in a white car, traveling down Warwick Avenue. He turned right on Windsor Avenue, but couldn't go anywhere because the car in front of him had stopped.
A teenager ran out of that car and opened fire on a moving car. That driver kept going. The Coppin officer then shot and killed the teen.
Coppin Police Chief Leonard Hamm praised his officer's actions.
"I don't know if I would have been able to have the presence of mind to stop somebody from doing what they were doing, call for an ambulance and preserve that crime scene. That's what that officer did," Chief Hamm said.
Hamm would not identify the officer, but said he's been on the force for 14 months -- hired from another department.
"The officer has not made a statement, as far as I know, based on what his lawyer is telling him to do," said Hamm.
Police say the gunman they shot is 18-year-old Lavar Douglas. He lives in the area. He went by the nickname "Nook."
Police call this a targeted attack. It happened just after 6 p.m. Tuesday directly outside a dorm, and a short walk from Mondawmin Mall and Frederick Douglass High School.
"It illustrates some of this violence we're dealing with that somebody can get shot at and not even report it," said T.J. Smith, Baltimore City Police Department. "The video speaks for itself. That's an independent witness that's unbiased."
"Bang, bang, bang -- a matter of seconds -- and that's the amazing part of it," said Hamm. "I'm an old-time cop, and I wonder if I would have been able to do that."
Police have yet to identify anyone in the moving car that was the target. They also have not identified the person who was driving Douglas. He fled the scene in his car as well.
Police say they edited the video with a black box over where Douglas was shot out of respect for his loved ones. Many of them have flooded social media with remembrances as they grieve.
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