Maryland AG seeks court order in fatal police shooting case

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Lawyer Basic Brian Frosh sought a court docket order on Monday to cease the Harford County Sheriff’s Workplace from “interfering” with a legally required investigation by his workplace of a deadly police-involved taking pictures. His workplace mentioned sheriff’s staff prevented state investigators from accumulating crime scene proof and refused to share copies of video recordings.

The sheriff’s workplace, in the meantime, mentioned in an announcement Monday that it continues to work “in conjunction” with the AG’s Impartial Investigation’s Division and Maryland State Police investigators, in accordance with state regulation and sheriff’s workplace coverage.

The sheriff’s workplace recognized the 2 deputies concerned in Saturday’s taking pictures as Sgt. Bradford Sives and Cpl. Christopher Maddox, and mentioned each are on routine administrative depart pending the result.

The deputies had been responding to reviews {that a} man was “reportedly suicidal” and believed to be armed at about 3 p.m. at a Harford County purchasing middle close to Bel Air once they encountered him behind a retailer and fired on him. John Raymond Fauver, 53, was pronounced lifeless at a hospital.

The sheriff’s workplace notified the impartial division on Saturday that two of its deputies had shot and killed a civilian in Forest Hill, in response to paperwork filed Monday.

Investigators from the division, the Maryland State Police murder unit and state forensic consultants started arriving inside 40 minutes to course of the crime scene, acquire proof and interview witnesses, the court docket paperwork mentioned.

The lawyer basic’s workplace mentioned the Harford County Sheriff’s Workplace refused to permit the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Unit, which is one other impartial physique, to gather proof within the case in accordance with the investigative division’s protocols.

“The HCSO insisted as a substitute that its personal staff acquire the proof,” the lawyer basic’s workplace mentioned in a information launch. “The HCSO didn’t start accumulating that proof till after MSP proof technicians had been current and obtainable to take action in a dependable, impartial method.”

The proof has not been supplied to the lawyer basic’s investigative division within the two days for the reason that fatality occurred, the lawyer basic’s workplace mentioned.

The sheriff’s workplace additionally refused to share with the division copies of any video recordings, together with the body-worn cameras of Sives and Maddox and different officers on the scene, dashboard cameras and extra video from non-law-enforcement sources, the lawyer basic’s workplace mentioned.

Having copies of these movies for evaluation is essential to conducting an impartial investigation, mentioned the lawyer basic’s workplace, which filed a criticism Monday in search of a brief restraining order in opposition to the sheriff’s workplace.

“The Sheriff’s Workplace is interfering with the Division’s investigation on this case,” Frosh mentioned within the assertion. “This interference with an impartial investigation is in violation of the regulation. The folks of Maryland deserve higher, and we are going to combat to see that they get it.”

However the sheriff’s workplace mentioned investigators from the division and state police “have had the chance and entry to overview all footage and so they have seen footage together with HCSO personnel.”

“Within the spirit of full cooperation, they proceed to have full and unfettered entry to view any footage or proof they want as we transfer ahead,” the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.

Final 12 months, as a part of a package deal of police reform measures, the Maryland Basic Meeting created an impartial unit throughout the Lawyer Basic’s Workplace, known as the Impartial Investigations Division, to research all police-involved fatalities, and required native law-enforcement companies to cooperate with the division’s investigations.