Suspect caught after shooting two officers and stealing one of their cars

A suspect sought in the shooting of two Maryland police officers was in custody Friday morning, authorities said. He’d been surrounded by law enforcement after fleeing from the vehicle he’d stolen from a detective he shot Thursday night, authorities said.

Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies surrounded the suspect in a wooded area near a shopping mall in Fallston after police used spike strips to disable the stolen vehicle, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler told reporters at 1 a.m. Friday at a news conference.

“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.”

Hours later, Gahler’s office and Baltimore County police tweeted that the suspect had been caught.

An officer was shot Thursday night during a search for 24-year-old David Linthicum, who authorities said wounded a different officer while firing at police the previous afternoon.

Interim Baltimore County Police Chief Dennis Delp said early Friday that the detective who was shot Thursday night was in stable condition. Delp wouldn’t say how many times the officer was shot but noted he was wearing a ballistic vest.

But Dr. Thomas Scalea of the Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore told a news conference the detective was in stable condition but on life support after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds to his torso and extremities. 

Linthicum stole the detective’s vehicle after the shooting around 9:20 p.m., Delp said.

Gahler said Linthicum was isolated in an area where there was no threat to public safety and officers would wait to avoid using deadly force while trying to make an arrest. “We don’t want to be forced into taking this individual’s life,” he said.

Police took a rifle and a handgun from the recovered vehicle after the suspect fled, Gahler said.

The first shooting occurred while police were responding to a call for a person in crisis. Baltimore County officers were called Wednesday afternoon to a home on Powers Avenue in Cockeysville, where a family member escorted them to the person in crisis, police said in a statement.

While the officers interacted with Linthicum, he fired multiple shots, wounding one officer, police spokesperson Joy Stewart said. Officers didn’t fire their weapons during that interaction, she said.

The injured officer was taken to a hospital and officials announced late Wednesday that he was released and in good spirits.

The suspect in the shooting was later identified by police as Linthicum.

There was a heavy police presence in the area with helicopters circling overhead Wednesday as officials closed roads in the neighborhood of single-family homes with large lawns that back up to woods, news outlets reported. Officials urged residents to shelter in place and several schools in the area were closed Thursday. They said they’d be closed Friday as well but that was before Linthicum was apprehended.

The search continued into Thursday evening as police ordered residents near the home in Cockeysville to shelter in place because Linthicum was spotted in the area.

Officials said the second officer was shot and injured during the search for Linthicum.