BALTIMORE — Baltimore police officers shot a man in the leg Saturday morning after he charged at 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 Commissioner Richard Worley said during a news conference at the scene.
Worley said officers were conducting routine patrols in a southwest Baltimore neighborhood when they encountered a naked man walking down the street. The man, whose name has not been released, ran inside 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 charged at them during 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 was living.
“This was a very intense situation,” he said, praising the officers’ actions in responding to someone who was “obviously suffering some kind of behavioral crisis.”
Two other police shootings earlier this year unfolded in roughly the same section of southwest Baltimore, which has long been plagued by poverty, violence and disinvestment. Those shootings, including a deadly foot pursuit in November, have raised questions about police tactics in the area.
“This is an area that’s always a concern for us,” Worley said. “There’s a lot of violence, there’s a lot of drug activity, and our officers were doing exactly what we want them to do — patrolling a high-crime area looking for things that were out of the ordinary.”
Worley said the department has activated its critical incident reporting policy, which typically involves releasing body-camera footage in the coming days.
