No charges for 4 Baltimore officers who fatally shot an armed man after he fired at them

BALTIMORE– Four Baltimore police officers who fired three dozen shots at an armed man during a foot chase in November will not face criminal charges, prosecutors said Friday.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a news release that the officers returned fire after 27-year-old Hunter Jessup fired seven shots in their direction while fleeing. Jessup was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

The decision not to charge the officers comes after an investigation by the attorney general’s office, which is authorized under state law to investigate police shootings and deaths in custody. A change in law that came into effect last year also gave the agency the authority to make charging decisions; previously, those decisions were the purview of local prosecutors.

Jessup’s death occurred on Nov. 7 after officers from a District Action Team — a team focused on confiscating illegal weapons — approached him while patrolling southwest Baltimore.

In the aftermath of the shooting, some community members questioned whether his death was necessary. They said officers in the department’s specialized weapons units have a reputation for exhibiting overly aggressive behavior and escalating otherwise peaceful encounters, especially in that neighborhood.

But Baltimore Police Chief Richard Worley praised the officers’ actions, saying they protected public safety in an area plagued by violence. He also said they yelled at Jessup several times to drop his gun before they started shooting.

The attorney general’s office ruled that the officers acted in self-defense or in defense of others and did not use excessive force.

“Because the officers had no reasonable alternative to using deadly force at the time they fired, a prosecutor could not prove that the shootings constituted excessive force,” the agency’s report released Friday said.