The Maryland Attorney General’s Office will not criminally charge three Baltimore County Police officers who shot and killed a 29-year-old armed man at a Pikesville gas station in January.
County officers Paul Fleck, Andrew Helphenstine and Tony Taylor all fired their weapons at Sha-Kim Webley of Windsor Mill, who died at a hospital Jan. 9 after a shoot-out, according to a 15-page attorney general’s report dated Sept. 10 but released Thursday.
The Independent Investigations Division of the Attorney General’s office, which investigates all police-involved deaths, did not initially name the officers involved, citing “specific security concerns.”
The report concluded that the officers did not violate any state laws during the shooting, which was captured on the officers’ body-worn cameras, because Webley, armed with a handgun, had barricaded himself inside a store with bystanders and fired first at officers.
A woman called 911 on Jan. 9 and reported that a man, later identified as Webley, had “put his hands on her” before leaving a Reisterstown Road motel wearing a tan and yellow hoodie and carrying a gun in a bag. County police responded to the Pikesville motel at about 11:40 a.m. and talked with the caller, then began looking for Webley.
Two officers found a man wearing the hoodie the caller described at a convenience store near the motel. When police approached Webley, he told them not to come closer and that there would be a shootout. He drew a gun from his waistband and aimed it at the officers, the report said. The officers left the store and radioed for backup.
During an eight-minute standoff, officers took cover behind their cruisers and pointed their guns at the store. According to “private video footage,” Webley locked the store’s door and “paced around the store holding his handgun with his finger on the trigger.”
Two clerks inside the store tried to convince Webley to leave and offered to help him.
“They got this place surrounded, bro, I’m not going like that,” he responded, according to the report.
He then demanded the employees give him “wraps” because he wanted to “smoke a blunt before I die, bro,” according to the report.
After about six minutes, Webley called Baltimore County 911 while inside the convenience store and said, “Yo, I got hostages…!”
When the dispatcher asked for the address of the emergency, he said: “Tell these motherf_____s I’m not going without a fight.” He then gave the address of the store.
He also said: “I want my kids … I want my sons to know that I love ’em. I want my sons to know that I love ’em. I’m sorry.”
As the dispatcher tried to ask more questions, he continued to address his children. “Don’t end up like me, kids. Don’t end up like me. Do not end up like me, I love y’all.”
There’s no evidence that officers at the scene knew about the 911 call, the report said.
Finally, Webley fired a shot at the convenience store’s front door from inside. The officers said into their radios that he had fired but none of them had been hit.
“It sounded like a blank, and he shot it right at the glass and the glass didn’t break,” Helphenstine said.
Seconds later, Webley opened the door and walked towards the officers while firing his gun, the report said. The three officers fired back at him during a three-second exchange of gunfire, which stopped a second after he fell to the ground, the report said.
Police yelled at him unsuccessfully to drop the gun, until a group of officers approached him from behind a ballistic shield and took the weapon before they rendered aid. Fire department medics arrived at the scene and took Webley to the hospital in an ambulance, where he died.
According to the report, Webley fired four rounds from his .22 caliber revolver. Fleck fired two shotgun rounds, and Helphenstine and Taylor fired 10 and nine rounds, respectively, with their service pistols. An autopsy showed Webley suffered 15 gunshot wounds.
Investigators for the attorney general’s office wrote that there was no evidence the officers had violated Maryland’s use-of-force statute, which prohibits force that is not “necessary and proportional to prevent an imminent threat of physical injury to” officers or others. According to the report, Webley’s actions threatened the safety of the officers and the convenience store workers.
The report cited the fact that Webley immediately pointed a gun at Taylor and another officer and told them there would be a shootout, announced that he had “hostages” and fired in the direction of officers. The officers didn’t fire at Webley until after he exited the convenience store, pointed his gun at them and began shooting, investigators wrote.
“In short, Mr. Webley’s behavior required that the subject officers fire their guns at him,” the report said.
The report also said prosecutors would be unable to prove any “homicide offenses” such as second-degree murder or manslaughter, since Webley was the “aggressor” in the stand off.