A Baltimore police officer is off the streets… for now… after a viral video showed what looked like a straight-up chase not on foot, but with a patrol car through the city’s Park Heights neighborhood!
The clip, caught by a witness on Tuesday evening, has people across the city shaking their heads and demanding answers. City officials say the footage is “deeply disturbing” and “unacceptable.”
“Like automatic full speed trying to hit him and all that, so my man started running. He’s running for his life now. He ain’t going to stop. He’s trying to hit him with the car,” said Slick Brown, the man who recorded the video.
According to Brown, things started off simple enough. He and his friends were chilling on Wylie Avenue around 5 p.m. when the officer rolled up and told them to move along.
“So, first he pulled up for real. He told us walk off, so we was walking off,” Brown told WBAL-TV. “Then, he pulled back up on my man and told him to come here for no reason. So, then my man said, ‘No,’ and he kept walking. So, he walked through the alley. As soon as he walked through the alley, he hopped back in the car and he started chasing him.”
That’s when things went left and real fast. The officer is seen on the video speeding after the man through the neighborhood, even crashing through a fence into someone’s yard off Park Heights Avenue.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley didn’t hold back, calling the footage “disturbing” and “alarming.
“This is not how we expect our officers to behave and this incident does not reflect the values or standards of the Baltimore Police Department,” Worley said in a statement.
Mayor Brandon Scott also weighed in, saying, “The contents of the video are deeply concerning. The officer in question has been suspended and the situation is under investigation.”
Brown says the man being chased is still sore and nursing an injured knee, but thankfully alive.
“He’s a good man. He could’ve lost his life in that situation. That’s all I’m saying,” Brown said. “I’m just happy that video got seen by people like you and other people in the world.”
The state’s attorney’s office has opened an investigation into the incident as the community waits to see what consequences the officer will face.
Baltimore residents, meanwhile, are once again asking the same question: when will this stop?