Tag: maryland

Maryland police present bodycam video of lethal officer-involved taking pictures of Black man at McDonald’s drive-thru

Talking whereas the video performed on a projector display, Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones narrated a 28-minute-long compilation of physique digicam footage excerpts and a recorded telephone name between police and the motive force, 21-year-old Ryan LeRoux, earlier than the July 16 taking pictures in Gaithersburg. Police responded to a name a few McDonald’s buyer who refused to pay or take away his automobile from the drive-thru.

Jones stated officers who initially arrived on the scene noticed a handgun within the entrance passenger seat and referred to as for backup when LeRoux refused their instructions to step out of the automobile. A half-hour standoff ensued.

Officers taking cowl behind a defend approached LeRoux’s SUV and positioned “cease sticks” in entrance of the automobile. Police additionally positioned a physique digicam within the drive-thru window to get a greater vantage level of the gun in his automobile, Jones stated.

AFTER MARYLAND FATAL SHOOTING AT MCDONALD’S, 4 OFFICERS ON LEAVE

Video performed Tuesday appeared to indicate LeRoux shifting inside a parked automobile, apparently sitting up from a reclining place, moments earlier than 4 officers opened hearth on him. Jones stated police recovered a loaded Glock 47 from LeRoux’s lap – although he didn’t disclose whether or not investigators consider LeRoux raised a weapon or posed a risk to police at any level main as much as the taking pictures.

Jones stated there was no proof that LeRoux fired at officers. A lady from the police division’s emergency command heart had spoken to LeRoux by way of his cellphone. LeRoux stated he noticed the officers and complied with their instructions to boost his palms.

Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones opinions an officer’s physique digicam footage from a deadly police taking pictures on July 16 at a McDonald’s in Gaithersburg, Md., throughout a information convention in Gaithersburg, Tuesday, July 27, 2021.
(AP Picture/Michael Kunzelman)

“I can hear them simply effective,” he stated.

“We’re simply attempting that can assist you right here,” she advised LeRoux, asking him to increase his palms out a window.

Jones stated the officers didn’t see LeRoux’s palms up or out the window.

A police sergeant later referred to as LeRoux.

“What’s happening, man?” the sergeant requested. “Hi there? He simply hung up on me.”

A disaster negotiator was en path to the scene however didn’t arrive earlier than the taking pictures, Jones stated.

Activists collect for a vigil on Tuesday, July 27, 2021 close to the McDonald’s restaurant in Gaithersburg, Md., the place Ryan LeRoux, a 21-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by police on July 16.
(AP Picture/Michael Kunzelman)

Montgomery County Metropolis Council used LeRoux’s dying to emphasise the necessity “for applicable different responses to psychological well being crises,” arguing “insurance policies and procedures are reviewed to supply our cops with the instruments they should efficiently deescalate most of these conditions.”

LeRoux died at a hospital. Talking to reporters later Tuesday, his mom, Rhonda LeRoux, stated he was depressed, had misplaced his job and girlfriend, and was grieving the current dying of his grandmother. She stated her son was residing out of his automobile and had legally bought a gun to guard himself.

The 4 officers concerned had been positioned on administrative go away, a typical process after a taking pictures.

All 4 officers are White, and LeRoux was Black, police division spokeswoman Shiera Goff stated. The Howard County State’s Lawyer’s Workplace will overview LeRoux’s taking pictures beneath an settlement with its counterpart in neighboring Montgomery County.

The Related Press contributed to this report.

January 23, 2025
Gunman discovered criminally answerable for killing 5 at paper

The decision means Jarrod Ramos might be sentenced to jail, not a maximum-security psychological well being facility, for one of many deadliest assaults on journalists within the U.S. Prosecutors are in search of 5 life sentences with out the potential of parole.

The jury wanted lower than two hours to search out that Ramos, 41, might perceive the criminality of his actions and conform his conduct to the necessities of the regulation when he attacked the Capital Gazette newsroom in 2018.

This June 28, 2018, file photograph offered by the Anne Arundel Police reveals Jarrod Ramos in Annapolis, Md.
(Anne Arundel Police through AP, File)

Survivors and relations of victims, some with tears of their eyes, embraced outdoors the courtroom and applauded prosecutors and jurors as they walked by after the decision.

“It’s been a endless nightmare,” mentioned Cindi Rittenour, the sister of Rebecca Smith, who died within the assault. “After which listening to that at present — simply all my nervousness over it, all of the wonderings, the unknowns, it’s all gone away now, and all I really feel is simply reduction and happiness. I really feel like my sister can lastly begin to relaxation in peace.”

Danielle Ohl was a reporter on the Capital Gazette when Ramos attacked and got here to Annapolis to be together with her former colleagues for the decision.

“It’s the fruits of three excruciating years, ready for a outcome within the trial and ready to search out out if the person who type of ruined our households and newsroom would go someplace with the potential to be launched,” Ohl mentioned.

Paul Gillespie, a photojournalist on the newspaper, mentioned he suffers from PTSD, nervousness and melancholy for the reason that assault. In courtroom, he described feeling the breeze of shotgun pellets whiz by him as he ran out of the newsroom to security.

“With this being over now, I’m hoping issues get just a little higher, however I don’t know what the long run holds,” Gillespie mentioned.

“He’s evil; he’s not loopy. He deserves to be in jail, and I hope he will get all 5 life phrases,” he mentioned of Ramos.

Ramos already had pleaded responsible to all 23 counts in opposition to him in 2019 however pleaded not criminally accountable — Maryland’s model of an madness plea. The second section of his trial, which lasted 12 days, was largely a battle between psychological well being consultants referred to as by protection attorneys and prosecutors.

Ramos developed a long-running grudge in opposition to the newspaper after an article it revealed about his responsible plea to a misdemeanor cost of harassing a former highschool classmate in 2011. He filed a lawsuit in opposition to the paper in 2012, alleging he was defamed, but it surely was dismissed as groundless. His appeals failed.

MARYLAND MAN ADMITS TO LEAVING THREATENING LETTER ON BIDEN-HARRIS SUPPORTER’S DOORSTEP

Protection attorneys argued that Ramos suffered from a delusional dysfunction in addition to autism and obsessive-compulsive dysfunction. They contended Ramos turned consumed with the concept that the article had ruined his life. As his defamation appeals failed, his attorneys mentioned he got here to imagine there was an unlimited conspiracy in opposition to him involving the courts and the newspaper.

Prosecutors, nevertheless, repeatedly pointed to shortcomings within the psychological well being evaluations finished by the protection, which relied totally on interviews with Ramos and his sister.

Prosecutors mentioned Ramos acted out of revenge for the article. They mentioned his lengthy, meticulous planning for the assault and the style during which he carried it out — together with plans for arrest and lengthy incarceration — proved he understood the criminality of his actions.

They emphasised how Ramos referred to as 911 from the newsroom after the taking pictures, recognized himself because the gunman and informed him he surrendered — proof he clearly understood the criminality of his actions. He was arrested whereas facedown below a desk.

Anne Colt Leitess, the Anne Arundel County state’s lawyer, mentioned that though Ramos has character problems like narcissism, he doesn’t have severe psychological sickness that may have certified him to be discovered not criminally answerable for 5 murders.

Leitess informed the jury that Ramos thought he was smarter than everybody else, and his repeated losses in courtroom had been “an excessive amount of for him to bear, and so he began plotting his revenge.” Leitess additionally mentioned Ramos was involved the article about him harassing his former classmate would hinder his capacity to get dates.

After the decision, Leitess expressed satisfaction with the result.

“This implies the whole lot to the neighborhood. I’m simply so pleased that I used to be in a position to carry justice for the relations and the survivors, and that Mr. Ramos might be held criminally answerable for his crimes,” she mentioned.

The trial started final month, three years and a day after the assault that killed Wendi Winters, John McNamara, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen and Smith on the newspaper’s workplace in a constructing advanced in Maryland’s capital metropolis on June 28, 2018.

Underneath Maryland’s madness protection regulation, a defendant has the burden to point out by a preponderance of the proof that he’s not criminally answerable for his actions. Which means protection attorneys needed to present that it’s extra possible than not that Ramos isn’t criminally accountable.

December 13, 2024
Maryland man allegedly forced shotgun on suicidal teen son, told him ‘just do it’

Anthony Jerome Lewis, 46, was taken into custody last week after the incident. It’s unclear when the encounter happened, but Lewis’ son told investigators on Wednesday he was abused on many occasions between January and June of this year.

EX-BOSTON COLLEGE STUDENT ACCUSED OF URGING BOYFRIEND TO KILL HIMSELF CLAIMS SHE DID OPPOSITE, RELEASES TEXTS

On one occasion, the high school student told Lewis and his mother he had felt suicidal, which is when his father apparently forced a shotgun between the teenager’s legs and forced his hands toward the trigger, the Capital Gazette reported, citing court records.

Anthony Jerome Lewis, 46, was arrested after he allegedly handed his son a shotgun and told him to "just do it" after he confessed to having suicidal thoughts.
(Anne Arundel County Police Department)

Lewis, of Odenton in Anne Arundel County, allegedly told his son to “do it” and “end it now” before the boy left and went to his room and locked the door.

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The teenager told authorities there were a number of other abusive incidents at the hands of his father. He said during a six-month period earlier this year, Lewis hit him at least three times with a belt or extension cord — with more than 20 lashes comprising each incident, according to WMAR-TV.

FORMER GEORGIA POLICE CHIEF, SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER KILLED BY NEPHEW AT FAMILY PARTY IN MISSISSIPPI, POLICE SAY

On another occasion, Lewis’ son claimed he was choked so hard he saw “weird colors.” He said he was once removed from school for “homeschooling,” but ultimately ended up doing chores around the house.

The boy said he was fed properly, but was only allowed to use the bathroom when he asked for permission. He told authorities he was “forced to stay in his room with no television, phone or internet access when not doing the chores.”

At a hearing on Thursday, Lewis was ordered held without bond and to have no contact with his child. The judge reportedly called him a public safety risk, but Lewis argued he was not a threat to his son, nor was he a flight risk.

He was charged with first- and second-degree assault, coercion, participation and providing the means of assisted suicide, reckless endangerment, firearm use and child abuse.

Nicole Darrah covers breaking and trending news for FoxNews.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @nicoledarrah.

October 12, 2024