BALTIMORE — A man who appeared to be suffering from a “behavioral crisis” walked into the entrance of a Baltimore courthouse and shot himself in the head after authorities tried to interact with him before a security area, the city’s police commissioner said.
The 35-year-old man was in critical condition at an area hospital, Police Commissioner Richard Worley said. He also noted that a bailiff shot the man in his lower extremities.
“As he went into the courthouse, it was clear he was suffering from a behavioral crisis,” Worley said at a news conference outside of the district courthouse. “He was walking back and forth. As he entered, the sheriff’s deputies and the bailiffs tried to interact with him, and at some point he withdrew a firearm from his body, pointed it at his head.”
Worley said sheriff’s deputies and bailiffs tried to get him to drop the weapon.
“Unfortunately, he did not. At some point, one of the bailiffs fired a shot. The victim fired a shot, a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” Worley said.
The man was the only person who was shot, the commissioner said.
Worley said the man did not get through the courthouse security system. He also said it’s unclear why the man was at the Eastside District Court.