BALTIMORE — Newly released body-camera footage shows three Baltimore police officers unleashing a barrage of gunfire on a fleeing teenage suspect almost immediately after spotting a gun in his hand.
William Gardner, 17, was shot a dozen times, officials said at a news conference Friday afternoon when they released the footage. He was pronounced dead at the scene Monday night.
The shooting prompted outrage from residents of Gardner’s southwest Baltimore neighborhood who questioned the officers’ reasoning. While acknowledging that officers have a difficult and dangerous job, critics argue it was unnecessary for police to kill the teen over an illegal handgun, calling this the latest case of excessive force against a young Black man.
Baltimore Police Department leaders said Gardner pointed his gun at officers in the moments before he was killed, but it’s not completely clear from the bodycam footage whether he was aiming at police or threatening them with the weapon before they opened fire.
The video does clearly show a gun in Gardner’s right hand. However, the situation escalates so fast that it’s unclear what exactly the officers were reacting to when they started shooting.
Police Commissioner Richard Worley called the shooting “truly a tragic incident” and emphasized that the department is conducting a thorough investigation. He didn’t immediately praise the officers’ actions, as he’s sometimes done in the aftermath of other recent police shootings.
Worley said it was too soon to say whether the officers used excessive force but he noted that they were chasing someone who was “clearly armed” and warned him numerous times to drop his weapon.
“We recognize that any use of force by law enforcement lends itself to a high level of public criticism. And so we take those concerns very seriously and are committed to continued conversation with the community,” he said at the start of Friday’s news conference. “We don’t have all the answers today because we’re only a few days into the investigation.”
Officials said officers in the department’s Group Violence Unit were patrolling that part of southwest Baltimore because they had received a report of guns being discharged about an hour earlier. The area has also seen a recent uptick in shootings and robberies, but Worley said his understanding is that the officers weren’t looking for Gardner specifically; they were just patrolling the area.
They drove past a group of people gathered on the sidewalk and noticed Gardner grabbing his waistband, officials said. He started quickly walking away from the group when an officer tried to approach him on foot. He then started running and the officer chased him. Meanwhile three other officers followed along.
The bodycam footage doesn’t show that initial interaction. Officials said the officers didn’t have their cameras turned on because they were only driving around, per department policy. The video starts during the chase.
It shows two officers screaming at Gardner while he runs alongside their moving vehicle, ordering him repeatedly to “get on the ground” or “you’re gonna get shot.”
“I will shoot you,” one officer yells.
Those officers appear to open fire immediately after stopping their vehicle. Moments earlier, another officer had approached Gardner on foot and apparently tried to grab him. That officer also opens fire as Gardner appears to raise his gun and turns toward the incoming police vehicle.
The officers fired up to 21 shots, officials said. None of them were injured. They’ve been placed on administrative duties pending the results of the investigation.
Gardner did not fire his handgun but officials said it was loaded.
The shooting follows two others that unfolded under similar circumstances last year in Baltimore. All three encounters escalated quickly, starting when officers saw someone on the street and believed they could be armed.
Police shootings in other cities have also raised similar questions in recent years, with prosecutors, courts and the public considering when an officer should use whatever means necessary to stop a fleeing suspect.
The Baltimore Police Department has implemented a series of reforms in recent years after the 2015 death of Freddie Gray turned an unwelcome spotlight on the agency. Much of its efforts have focused on restoring public trust, but residents of the city’s majority-Black communities often complain that little has changed.
Neighbors said Gardner was a familiar face in the area who sometimes picked up work at a nearby convenience store.
His loved ones created a makeshift memorial and left handwritten messages on the corner where he died, using tealight candles to spell his name and decorating a street sign with streamers and balloons.