Man wielding 2 knives shot and wounded by Baltimore police, officials say

BALTIMORE– Police officers in Baltimore shot a man in the leg Saturday morning after he attacked them with a machete-like weapon and another knife, officials said.

The man was listed in stable condition at a local hospital hours later, Baltimore Police Chief Richard Worley said at a news conference at the scene.

Worley said officers were conducting routine patrols in a southwest Baltimore neighborhood when they came across a naked man on the street. The man, whose name has not been released, ran into a nearby business and barricaded himself in a back room, Worley said.

He said the man threw an unidentified liquid at police when they first tried to enter the building and then attacked them on their second attempt. Police fired at least one shot after an officer was cut in the face, Worley said. The officer's injuries were minor.

Worley said authorities were still processing “handmade devices” they found in an apartment above the business where the man apparently lived.

“This was a very intense situation,” he said, praising the officers' actions in responding to someone who was “clearly suffering from some sort of behavioral crisis.”

Two other police shootings occurred earlier this year in roughly the same part of southwest Baltimore, long plagued by poverty, violence and disinvestment. These shootings, including a deadly foot chase in November, have raised questions about police tactics in the area.

“This is an area that always concerns us,” Worley said. “There's a lot of violence, there's a lot of drug activity, and our officers did exactly what we want them to do: patrol a high-crime area, looking for anything unusual.”

Worley said the department has activated its critical incident reporting policy, which typically involves releasing body camera footage in the coming days.