Teen Suspect Among Those Charged With Carjacking Baltimore Detective As City Carjackings Surge
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Police have now charged a 16-year-old suspect and a 23-year-old suspect for the brazen carjacking of a Baltimore police detective that unfolded on busy Hanover Street in Cherry Hill just after 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
Police said three armed suspects confronted the officer in an unmarked patrol car in front of a convenience store. They were able to steal the car, then drove off and crashed less than a half-mile away in Port Covington.
Police said both Gardner and the teenager were taken to Central Booking. One suspect in the incident remains unidentified and at large.
Police also said Gardner and the teenager did not live in Baltimore.
Police said the three suspects took off over the Hanover Street bridge, where the car crashed and overturned.
The trio bailed from the car, but two were eventually arrested.
The detective opened fire on the assailants but it is unclear if anyone was struck. The officer was not injured.
Although the detective was not wearing a uniform, he was wearing a polo shirt embroidered with a police badge and other items indicating that he was a police officer, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said.
Those arrested face charges including armed carjacking, armed robbery and assault in addition to handgun violations.
Lawrence Jackson is a youth football coach who grew up in the city. He is alarmed about the brazen violence.
"It's shocking you would have some youth try to carjack an armed police officer. The violence and the crime is kind of getting out of hand in the city," Jackson told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. "The crime is just outrageous now. It takes your breath away. You really don't have words to fit the narrative for what's going on in the city now. …You've got to show the kids that somebody cares. No matter what you're going through, no matter how bad your life is, somebody cares."
Carjackings are up more than 60 percent in Baltimore year-to-date. There have been at least 200 since the start of the year.
A Johns Hopkins doctor is among the recent victims. He was shot in an attempted carjacking last month.
In the Southern District, where the officer fell victim, there have been 31 carjackings year to date.
Many of the suspects are young.
Pamela Ballweg, who lives in South Baltimore, is fed up. "People are not scared. Some of these people running these streets with these guns are not scared of nothing or nobody," she said. "This made me absolutely sick. I mean come on now! A police officer you're going to try and carjack? I don't know what's going on in Baltimore City but it's crazy down here."
Police said the detective and suspects were not injured.
In addition to carjackings, the nearby Brooklyn neighborhood had four homicides last week alone.
