Feb. 10, 2023 The 24-year-old who police say eluded capture twice after shooting officers in Cockeysville on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening is in custody.
By Dan Belson, Cassidy Jensen Source Baltimore Sun (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
COCKEYSVILLE, Maryland — The 24-year-old who police say eluded capture twice after shooting officers in Cockeysville on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening is in custody, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office said early Friday morning.
The eight-hour standoff in Fallston continued into Friday morning as law enforcement pleaded with the suspect, asking him to surrender peacefully as he was boxed into a wooded area by scores of police following a car chase out of Baltimore County.
Officers placed David Emory Linthicum in custody at 5:43 a.m., about eight hours after his car was stopped in Fallston. Neither the suspect nor law enforcement officials were injured, said Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler, who said the arrest was made “as peacefully as possible.”
Gahler said the suspect resisted to a minor degree being placed into handcuffs. He said the suspect didn’t have a gun but did have ammunition.
Linthicum will be turned over to the Baltimore County Police, Gahler said.
Gahler said at a news conference at 1 a.m. Friday that members of multiple local, state and federal agencies had surrounded the suspect in a wooded area near the Fallston Mall Shopping Center, after the man bailed out of a stolen police vehicle, which officers stopped by using spike strips.
“We believe he is armed with at least one rifle,” Gahler said. “It’s not so easy as just walking up and putting him in handcuffs.” Police retrieved a rifle and a handgun from the car the suspect was driving, Gahler said.
Gahler said the standoff could last hours, but that law enforcement was trying to arrest the man without using deadly force. “We don’t want to be forced into taking this individual’s life,” he said. He said there was no threat to the public, and the suspect “will not be getting out of that area.”
Fallston Middle School, Fallston High School and Youth’s Benefit Elementary are closed Friday due to the impasse, according to a news release from Harford County Public Schools. Students will not be able to use the Fallston High bus depot for magnet programs.
A search for Linthicum began Wednesday after he fired a gun at a Baltimore County Police officer who was responding to Linthicum’s home on Powers Avenue, injuring the officer. The officer was released later that evening from a hospital, but Linthicum escaped, prompting police to ask area residents to shelter in place and call 911 if they saw the suspect, who they said was “armed and dangerous.”
Linthicum was spotted again Thursday evening about 9:20 p.m., during a “fast, swift encounter” on Warren Road, where he shot a police detective, according to Interim Baltimore County Police Chief Dennis Delp, who said Linthicum proceeded to steal the detective’s vehicle and lead police on a chase to Harford County.
Delp said at a news conference at about 12:30 a.m. Friday at Shock Trauma that the detective was in stable condition.” Delp said the detective was wearing a ballistic vest, but declined to say exactly many times he was shot.
Dr. Thomas Scalea of Shock Trauma said at the news conference that the detective is on life support after arriving at Shock Trauma with multiple gunshot wounds in his torso and extremities at about 10 p.m.
“He is going to need a significant amount of reconstruction,” Scalea said. “We are putting our plan together now.He’ll be with us for a while.”
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said outside Shock Trauma that law enforcement from multiple jurisdictions are still attempting to arrest the suspect.
“I think you need to look no further than just down the street if you want to see what family looks like,” Olszewski said. “We see men and women who are out there trying to apprehend a suspect who has wreaked too much havoc in our communities.”
At about 10:15 p.m. Thursday, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office asked residents near Maryland Route 152 ( Mountain Road), U.S. Route 1 ( Belair Road), Old Joppa Road and Milton Avenue to shelter in place.
The Sheriff’s Office tweeted at about 11:30 p.m. that no shots had been fired in Fallston.
Police closed Belair Road between Route 152 and the 1900 block of Belair Road in Fallston on Thursday night while helicopters circled over the shopping center near Horizon Cinemas Fallston.
Onlookers gathered in parking lots surrounding the police perimeter, some listening to police scanners on their truck beds awaiting an outcome. Several of the businesses on Belair Road were on lockdown throughout the standoff.
Law enforcement could be heard using the suspect’s first name as they asked him to come out from a wooded area in response to an arrest warrant shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday. Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting Baltimore County officers and Harford County sheriff’s deputies late Thursday night in the search for Linthicum.
Police tweeted around 9:30 p.m. Thursday that residents in the area of Powers Avenue and Warren Road should shelter in place. Later in the evening, county police tweeted that Warren between Poplar Hill Road and Bosley Road would be closed for an extended period of time. Police advised motorists to use alternate routes. Shortly before 3 a.m., police tweeted that Warren between Poplar Hill and Bosley has been reopened. Powers was reopened around 5 a.m.
With Linthicum at large following the Wednesday shooting, several schools were closed and activities canceled.
Just before the shooting Thursday night, police blocked off entrances to Sherwood Road, the main road into the neighborhood, but appeared to be letting residents pass if they show identification.
Several police vehicles, including large armored trucks carrying officers in tactical gear, drove toward Powers. One neighbor said he heard authorities at the residence saying, “We know you are in there,” and several blasts throughout the evening.
Linthicum was charged with drug possession with intent to distribute in 2019, according to online court records. He pleaded guilty and received probation before judgment.
The Powers Avenue house where police were first called Wednesday sits on a narrow street in a quiet neighborhood east of York Road. Beyond the single-family houses are thick, rural woods that led to Beaverdam Run, a stream that feeds into Loch Raven Reservoir. The home’s driveway leads downhill to the backyard, where a grove of bamboo stands.
The Powers Avenue home is the same one where a 15-year-old shot and killed his parents and siblings in 2008, police said.
“Maybe there are dark demons in the house,” said next-door neighbor Ryan Heath.