Off-Duty Cop Talks Robber Into Surrendering: Just Kidding. He Shot Him.

32-year-old thug Edel Moreland wanted to rob someone in the Baltimore suburb of Linthicum Heights, where getting a concealed carry permit is all but impossible. He figured it would be like taking candy from a baby, even though his gun was fake

Advertisement

He could have not done a worse job of target selection, picking an off-duty special operations unit officer just coming off his shift. The results were predictable.

An off-duty Baltimore cop shot and killed an armed robbery suspect who police say tried to rob the officer with what turned out to be a toy gun.

The shooting Saturday at 1:30 a.m. on a block of homes decorated with Christmas lights in the Baltimore suburb of Linthicum Heights was being investigated by Anne Arundel County Police, Fox 45 reported. Police said, according to the the station, that the officer fired in self-defense. They identified the robbery suspect as 32-year-old Edel Moreland.

“We feel very bad for the Moreland family to deal with the loss of a son especially around the holidays,” Anne Arundel Police Lt. Ryan Frashure told the station. “I’m sorry, our condolences to the family. Our condolences to the Baltimore city officer. It’s a very unfortunate incident to be placed into.”

The officer, who was not identified, is an 18-year veteran of the department assigned to the special operations unit.

“He had just gotten off work,” Frashure told WJZ-TV. “He had his duty weapon inside of a bag and when the suspect asked for a wallet, he reached into his bag like he was getting his wallet. That’s when he shot the suspect because he was pointing a gun at him.”

Advertisement

It’s worth noting that while the officer made hits that proved to be fatal, Moreland was able to flee the inital crime scene and was found dead on a nearby road.

As John Johnson noted so accurately in a video we recently posted, accurate shots to the upper torso (including the heart) don’t make an immediate kill as we’ve been conditioned to see in the movies and by falling steel targets. Instead, an accurate shot to the upper chest effectively starts a timer to the suspect’s loss of consciousness from blood loss, but even with a perfect center-mass hit that shreds the heart, a suspect has enough oxygen in their blood to stay in action 30 seconds or more. A less than perfect shot that misses the heart and major blood vessels can leave a suspect in action for a minute or more, still capable of fighting, hurting, or even killing you, or those around you.

This is why good defensive firearms instructors will teach their students to fire multiple shots, and will teach them to continue firing until the threat stops being a threat, however many shots that may take. That might take one shot, or it might take 33 shots and include reloads.

Advertisement

It’s why we have failure drills, and start aiming at different parts of the body (if the situation allows it) to break down an attacker if accurate shots to the upper thoracic cavity do not stop a determined aggressor.

Baltimore PD’s special operations unit contains two SWAT platoon units, aviation, K9, marine, and emergency services officers that have additional or specialized training.

 

Join the conversation as a VIP Member