BALTIMORE _ A man was shot and killed by a Baltimore County police officer on Friday afternoon, according to police.
The man was a suspect fleeing the robbery of a Wells Fargo Bank in Brooklandville shortly after 1 p.m., police said. He was transported to an area hospital, where he died, police said.
A second man _ also a suspect in the Friday bank robbery and multiple other recent bank robberies in the area _ was taken into custody with injuries that are not considered life threatening, police said.
Cpl. John Wachter, a police spokesman, said it was not clear if there had been an exchange of gunfire with police. He said one officer involved was wearing a body camera, though the footage from the camera had not yet been reviewed. It was unclear whether the officer wearing the camera was the same officer who fired.
"Once we review that camera footage we'll have a better idea of what happened," Wachter said.
Cameras first began getting distributed to a limited number of officers this summer.
Police said the man in custody, who has not been identified, is the suspect dubbed "The Aviator" this week by the FBI. The suspect's nickname comes from the style of sunglasses he has worn in three other area bank robberies.
The FBI on Thursday offered a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the man's arrest. The FBI said he was responsible for robberies on Sept. 1 at the Wells Fargo Bank in Dundalk; on Sept. 9 at the BB&T Bank in Hamilton; and on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Bank in Parkville.
The incident on Friday occurred at the intersection of Falls Road, Ruxton Road and Old Court Road, in an old mill town historically known as Rockland. The area is considered Brooklandville today, just west of Ruxton and Towson and north of Baltimore.
Dan Fesperman, a former reporter for The Baltimore Sun, said he was headed west on Ruxton Road and was preparing to turn left onto Falls Road when he noticed police cars ahead of him and one officer standing on the street, shouting. Suddenly, four or five shots were fired, he said _ though he was unsure where they came from.
"It was a pop, pop, pop, pop," he said.
At that point, a pale green-colored Ford Taurus appeared, headed eastbound on Old Court Road _ directly across Falls Road from Ruxton Road. The vehicle briefly accelerated, then slowed and appeared to coast across the intersection, slamming at about 20 mph into a Subaru station wagon stopped at the right of Fesperman's car, he said.
"All the cops came running across the road," Fesperman said, yelling at a man in the passenger seat of the Taurus. Fesperman said he couldn't see anyone in the driver's seat of the vehicle.
The police officers then "took billy clubs and they smashed the passenger side window," Fesperman said. They then opened the car door and pulled the man out, putting him on his stomach on the ground, Fesperman said.
Once Fesperman got out of his own vehicle, he saw multiple police officers tending to another man, who appeared to have been the driver of the vehicle.
"I saw that they were tending to a guy on that side, giving him CPR. There was a lot of blood. They had him on his back; there was blood around his face and head," Fesperman said.
Fesperman, who was asked to provide a witness statement at police headquarters, said when he asked an officer at the scene what was happening, the officer made reference to a bank robbery.
Doe Kim said his Misty Valley Farms stand on Ruxton Road was busy when gunfire erupted around the corner. He and the patrons rushed to the roadside and saw four or five people huddle behind a vehicle, and other vehicles making abrupt U-turns.
Police were already there when Kim heard the shots, and a dozen other squad cars with sirens blaring soon came racing by.
"It seemed like it was maybe some ongoing event and maybe it got out of hand," Kim said. "I heard four or five gunshots."
The incident follows two other recent deaths of people engaged in some way with county police.
A 21-year-old man died on Wednesday after he was injured during a confrontation with police on Sunday morning in Essex. Police say Tawon Boyd had resisted arrest, and three officers who restrained him were injured in the fray. Officials are awaiting the results of an autopsy report to determine the cause of death, but the family of Boyd said his kidneys and heart failed and questioned the police officers' handling of the situation.
Both the county police and fire departments are conducting internal investigations.
The county police department has been criticized in recent weeks for the shooting death of Korryn Gaines, 23, who was shot by a police officer in her Randallstown apartment last month. Police say Gaines raised and pointed a shotgun at officers, and Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger announced Wednesday that he would not bring any charges against the officer.
Gaines' family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund has asked County Executive Kevin Kamenetz to launch an independent review.
