Maryland AG continues investigation into deadly police-involved shooting at National Harbor
The Brief
The Maryland Attorney General's Office is continuing to investigate a deadly officer-involved shooting.
It happened at National Harbor on Easter Sunday.
The AG's Office says two officers opened fire on a knife-wielding man that allegedly was coming at them.
Body-worn camera footage of the shooting is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
PRINCE GEOREGE'S CO., Md. - The Maryland Attorney General's Office is launching an independent investigation just one day after an officer-involved shooting in Prince George's County. Police are looking into a stabbing and fire as part of the investigation.
The backstory
The Maryland AG says their independent investigations division is looking into every detail of what unfolded in National Harbor on the morning of Sunday, April 20.
At 10 a.m., two officers opened fire on a knife-wielding man that allegedly was coming at them. But the incident started around 8:30 a.m. at a nearby apartment complex.
Prince George's County police say there was some sort of domestic incident where the suspect stabbed a man and woman and then set the apartment they were in on fire. Police say it's unclear how they all knew each other.
No injuries were reported but 14 people were displaced, including six children, because of that fire and then 90 minutes later, the county got several 911 calls.
When they arrived, officers came into contact with the suspect, who was armed with a knife.
READ MORE:
What they're saying
Prince George's County Police Chief Malik Aziz says the suspect moved towards an officer, and that's when two officers opened fire. The suspect was struck an unknown number of times.
"It's so unfortunate that it happened on a beautiful Easter Sunday and beautiful National Harbor and I don't want to speculate but I think it's important that we pay attention to mental health issues, families knowing what's going on with their loved ones, so that we can live in a peaceful no violent world without these incidents," Chief Aziz said.
No officers were hurt, nor anyone at National Harbor.
Chief Aziz did add that police have come into contact with this suspect before. He was shot and rushed to the hospital where he later died.
Local perspective
With this all taking place on a holiday weekend in broad daylight, many were left shaken.
"We walk out here all the time. We're always alert when we're walking. Sometimes it's dark, sometimes it's light and it's disturbing to know the mental capacity of people," one Prince George's County woman said. "We have to be vigilant."
Police have not identified who the suspect is, but do say he lives in the area.
The AG's office will be analyzing body camera video, which should be released in the coming weeks.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
State withheld records in Rio Arriba sheriff death investigation
The New Mexico Department of Public Safety took 42 days — far beyond the 15 days allowed by state statute — to release information this week about the mysterious April death of Rio Arriba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield. Forensic pathologists reported May 15 that Merrifield's Easter morning death was due to the toxic effects of fentanyl and alcohol. Other questions remained unanswered, including whether the sheriff knowingly consumed fentanyl and where he may have obtained it. In the days after Merrifield was found dead in his patrol car April 20, The New Mexican filed a public records request for related police reports and other information. At first, the Department of Public Safety refused to release additional records. Next, it described the request as burdensome, buying the agency more time. After additional complaints from The New Mexican, it released a batch of investigative reports Thursday evening — 42 days after receiving the request. Those records — 105 pages of reports, photos and other documents — show the agency's investigators have not yet determined how Merrifield ingested the fatal dose of fentanyl that caused his death, along with alcohol. The recent secrecy over Merrifield's death reflects a pattern of slow-walked disclosure of public records like state police reports and lapel camera footage, shielding public information on homicides, crashes, police shootings around the state and other public safety-related incidents. The department's initial decision to withhold police reports from the investigation — as well as documents in another unrelated case — appears to have potentially run afoul of state public records laws and a Supreme Court ruling in recent years. Department of Public Safety spokesperson Herman Lovato declined to respond to some questions about the matter in an email Friday, but he wrote each request through the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act 'is addressed individually' by department staff. 'If it involves an active or ongoing investigation, records that are complete will be produced if not subject to an exception, even on an active or ongoing investigation,' Lovato wrote. 'If the records have not been completed because of an active or ongoing investigation, they may be temporarily withheld until completed.' He wrote the department's process 'aligns with New Mexico Supreme Court precedent and the requirements of IPRA.' However, the department's written reason for denying a recent request for state police reports tied to Merrifield's death did not appear consistent with the process Lovato described. In response to a request from The New Mexican seeking reports on Merrifield's death, a staff member at the department's records division wrote in early May, 'this is still a active/on going investigation and I was not given the approval to release the documents as they are still being [processed].' About two weeks later, the department's reasoning changed, with a different staffer writing the request for reports was 'overburdensome.' The records were finally released Thursday after The New Mexican submitted a complaint concerning an alleged violation of the Inspection of Public Records Act to the Department of Justice — and after sending emailed questions about the records request to officials that day. Advocate: Court ruling 'clear' Christine Barber, the executive director of New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said in an interview the department's initial denial of the request appeared to potentially violate a state Supreme Court ruling a few years ago on the specific topic of records in active law enforcement investigations. The ruling came as a result of a lawsuit brought by Andrew Jones against the Department of Public Safety, which had denied his request for records related to a state police investigation into the fatal shooting of his brother by Albuquerque police officers. Barber said the 2020 ruling was clear, holding that 'the status of a criminal investigation as 'ongoing' does not serve to exempt public records related to the investigation from inspection under [the Inspection of Public Records Act].' 'Sometimes government agencies need to be reminded of the law,' Barber said, noting past litigation between the Foundation for Open Government and the Department of Public Safety. In a 2007 settlement between the department, the foundation and several news publications — including The New Mexican — department officials agreed to provide records like incident reports within the 15-day timeline required by state law. An attorney for the government transparency group said at least one other journalist reported receiving a similar response recently when requesting the reports on Merrifield's death, but she added she did not recall other recent instances of state law enforcement agencies explicitly citing an open investigation as the reason for denying or delaying the production of records. The Department of Public Safety cited the Supreme Court's decision in a letter denying a different request from The New Mexican earlier this year for an incident report in a different death investigation. In the letter, staff acknowledged the court ruling stated exemptions to public records law 'cannot be interpreted so broadly as to withhold records simply due to the existence of an ongoing investigation.' The letter described exemptions that allow for redactions of parts of records, like names of potential subjects and informants, and ultimately stated the agency would withhold the entire report. 'Once the investigation is closed and no longer subject to these legal restrictions, certain records may become available for inspection,' the letter states. Weeks to fulfill requests While records are not usually withheld outright by the Department of Public Safety, it often takes several months to disclose reports from an investigation. In the past two years, The New Mexican has submitted at least 24 requests to the Department of Public Safety seeking reports or other documents such as the agency's written policies, lists of employees or financial data — not including requests for records like police lapel camera footage. The department provided the requested records in an average timeframe of more than two months per request. A little more than half of the requests for police reports or other documents were deemed 'broad' or 'burdensome' by the department's record staff, which allows for delays longer than 15 days. As of Friday, records have not been provided in response to two of the requests. Department of Justice spokesperson Lauren Rodriguez said attorneys from the division that investigate public records complaints had contacted the Department of Public Safety earlier this week regarding the complaint from The New Mexican. The investigators — after being assigned a complaint — usually contact the government agency in question to obtain more information, she said. They are trying to determine if there is actually noncompliance as well as whether the agency's staff knew their actions were out of compliance and whether they acted purposely in denying or delaying a records request. Apart from the complaint submitted against the Department of Public Safety by The New Mexican, the department has been the subject of one other records-related complaint so far this year to the Department of Justice, Rodriguez said. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office did not respond to an email seeking comment on the Department of Public Safety's practices concerning the release of public records. Lujan Grisham stood behind the department when asked about the issue last year, with a spokesperson writing the governor 'defers to law enforcement authorities to determine when the release of information is appropriate based on the status of ongoing investigations, notification of next of kin, etc.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
No details on how Rio Arriba sheriff ingested fentanyl in New Mexico State Police reports
A month and a half after Rio Arriba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield died from a fatal combination of alcohol and fentanyl, those investigating his death still don't know how he consumed the drug. An initial batch of reports released by New Mexico State Police this week indicate the agency's investigators have not yet determined how Merrifield ingested the fatal dose of fentanyl that caused his death, along with alcohol, according to toxicology reports. Following the sheriff's death, investigators collected evidence from the scene, including several cellphones, and interviewed the last people who had seen him alive and some of his close friends, the reports show. But the reports indicate investigators did not recover any drugs or drug paraphernalia from the scene of the sheriff's death. Although witnesses noted Merrifield was drinking alcohol the night before he died, several who were close to the sheriff have noted — to the police and to The New Mexican — they had never known him to use drugs. Merrifield was found dead in his sheriff's office vehicle on Easter Sunday, April 20, after being involved in what police described as a "minor crash" early that morning down the street from his home near Abiquiú Lake. A close friend told officers and dispatchers he had come to Merrifield's aid sometime before 4 a.m., just after the crash, in which Merrifield, apparently driving his sheriff's office vehicle while intoxicated, had run over a street sign. The sheriff had been with a woman he had met a week before, his friend told police. The two had been drinking together at Merrifield's home, and Merrifield crashed into the sign just after leaving his home to take the woman back to a house she where was living in Española. The woman — who told police she was from Chihuahua, Mexico, and had been staying in Española for about eight months with family friends while acting as a caregiver for an older relative — had met Merrifield at the bar at the Ohkay Hotel Casino the previous Saturday night, April 12. Merrifield was there with friends, including the man who came to the couple's aid the morning Merrifield died, she said. The woman and Merrifield remained in contact throughout that week, developing a romantic relationship, according to the report. She told police Merrifield had been drinking liquor mixed into a Sprite bottle through the night of April 19 and into the following morning, but he was not "displaying obvious signs of impairment," such as stumbling, and he told her he was "good" to drive her home. After he swerved off the road and struck a road sign on N.M. 96, about 50 yards from the entrance of his driveway, the woman became "scared," she said, and she took the wheel and steered the vehicle back onto the road, according to the report. She looked over and saw that Merrifield was "snoring," she said. Police asked the woman if she or Merrifield had used any drugs, and she said "she didn't, but she didn't know if Billy used," police wrote in a report. Investigators interviewed the woman twice, once just hours after Merrifield was found dead and again May 2. Officers indicated the woman asked if she could return home to Mexico sometime after the second interview. After Merrifield's friend arrived at the scene of the crash early the morning of April 20, he drove back to Merrifield's home and the woman followed him, driving Merrifield's vehicle, sitting on the sheriff's lap because he was in and out of consciousness and could not be moved from the seat, she told police. The friend then took the woman back to Española, leaving Merrifield sitting in the driver's seat of his vehicle, parked in his driveway. Merrifield's friend told police he was going to help Merrifield into his home, but he feared the sheriff's dogs — which were inside the home — might bite him if he did so, investigators wrote. He said Merrifield told him he was "okay," and the friend believed Merrifield was going to get out of the car and walk into his house shortly. The woman told officers Merrifield was asleep and snoring in his vehicle when she left with his friend. After trying to call Merrifield 26 times later that day, his friend returned to his home to find him sitting in the vehicle where he had left him that morning, and he was dead, police wrote. Investigators downloaded the contents of the two witnesses' phones and found texts and phone calls that appeared to corroborate the timeline of their testimony about Merrifield's final hours. Reports indicate investigators had not gained access to two phones that apparently belong to the sheriff. As of Friday, state police had not determined whether Merrifield ingested fentanyl knowingly or where he might have obtained it, the agency's spokesperson, Lt. Ricardo Breceda, confirmed in an email, writing, "investigators are hopeful this information will be learned as the investigation continues." There was no evidence to suggest any other staff of the Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Office were implicated, or that the sheriff obtained any drugs in his official capacity, Breceda wrote. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with Merrifield's death, but investigators are "working to determine if any charges need to be filed," he added.
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Accused in aggravated assault has history of driving offences
The Penticton man recently charged in connection to a vicious assault that sent a Penticton man to hospital for emergency brain surgery just before Christmas last year was sentenced to 30 days in jail two weeks after the alleged attack on a charge of refusing to provide a breath sample. Following a lengthy investigation, Shaun Richard Clauson, 49, was charged two weeks ago with aggravated assault in relation to an incident outside a south end Penticton restaurant on Dec. 22. RCMP officers repsonded to a report of an attack against a lone male. A 28-year-old man was located with serious injuries. The man was transported to hospital in Penticton, where doctors were so concerned about his injuries he was transported to Kelowna General Hospital. Doctors there performed emergency surgery after it was discovered he was suffering from bleeding in his brain. Clauson made a brief first appearance on the aggravated assault charge Wednesday morning at the Penticton courthouse. He will make his next appearance in two weeks on June 18. The Herald has discovered that Clauson has a lengthy criminal record over the past several years, however, all of the charges and convictions registered against him are related to the Highway Traffic Act and there are no charges or convictions involving violence. Over the past three years, Clauson has been charged with and convicted of more than one count of driving while prohibited, refusal to provide a breath sample and one count of impaired driving. On Jan. 8, 2025, Clauson was sentenced to a 30-day jail sentence related to a charge of refusal to provide a breath sample filed on Nov. 8, 2024. On May 23, 2023, Clauson was charged with impaired driving, driving while suspended and refusing to provide a proper breath sample. On one of the driving charges he was facing, Clauson was convicted and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine and was prohibited from driving for two years. On another Highway Traffic Act charge, he was fined $575 and again prohibited from driving for two years. Back in 2016, Clauson was charged and convicted of breaching a court order. Following his arrest on the aggravated assault charge two weeks ago, Clauson was arrested and later released on conditions. Those conditions remain in place as he remains free on a bail order. The RCMP said no further details will be released at this time. ••• After a couple of very harrowing days for Vincent, his mother Roxanne, his stepfather Steve Zeiler and his siblings and large circle of friends, he was released from hospital and allowed to go home. After two very difficult weeks, it was discovered Vincent commenced what all signs indicate is going to be a full and complete recovery as all of his motor and neurological abilities had returned. In January, the Barking Parrot, where Florence had worked for more than five years, held a celebratory fundraising event for Vincent and his family. Florence was not only the special guest, but he helped cook up hot dogs for those attending. This comes after the community rallied behind Vincent, who was projected to miss several months of work as he continued to recover. The community helped raise more than $10,000 in a GoFund Me campaign. 'I'm so thankful for all the love and support I've received,' he said, breaking down near tears. 'It has been amazing.' He was feeling better with each passing day and is confident that will continue, he said. 'I'm doing really well,' he said. 'I'm just super focused on my side effects that have come with my brain injury. I'm going to continue working on the recommendations that the doctors gave me to make a full recovery from my injuries.' His stepfather. Steve Zeiler, said while he remains incredulous and upset Vincent was attacked by a stranger for no reason, his faith in humanity has largely been restored by the outpouring of emotional and financial support for his stepson. 'It has been unbelievable,' he said. 'We never ever thought there would be this kind of support. We knew a lot of people liked Vincent and would support him. My son is having a hard time speaking about this because he never imagined a whole community would be behind him and would show so much love and support. When he returned to the Barking Parrot after being released from hospital, the amount of people who gathered around him to give him a hug and wish him well was incredible, she said. 'The people he works with were telling him how much they love him and miss him and the customers were saying the exact same thing,' she said. 'He looked at me and said 'I honestly never realized I affected that many people.' Florence not only worked at the Barking Parrot, but held a second job at a liquor store and not being able to go to work has been tough on him, but he knows he has to take a slow, but steady approach to recovering, said his mother. 'He hinted he's feeling so good he might try and get back to work in two weeks, and we told him absolutely not,' said his mother. 'He loves to work and he'll be back as soon as the doctors tell him it's OK.' Florence's good friend Paige Powers, who worked with him at the liquor store, said she's thrilled his recovery has been so positive after spending several days worrying he might not recover at all. 'We didn't know he was going to recover like this and it's nice to see him back to being more or less himself,' she said. 'He's smiling and happy. We all miss him at work and we want him back as soon as possible.' Luke Shawyer, a manager at The Barking Parrot, said Vincent has long been a popular employee because he works hard and is a nice guy. This incident really upset a lot of his co-workers and they're thrilled he's on the road to recovery. 'Vinnie is a really hard worker who has been with us for many years and when you see something like this happen to a co-worker, it really hit home with our team here,' he said. When news spread the Vincent was the victim of this crime and he was undergoing serious surgery, there were a few dark days, but the staff are universally very happy he's on the road to recover, said Shawyer. 'When we heard what happened, it was very gut wrenching,' he said. 'Your mind starts to race on you. We kept in touch with the family members and when they told us he's going to be OK and in recovery, that's all you could wish for.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
