Attorney general cites inability to disprove self-defense
Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown said Tuesday that his office will not prosecute police officers who fatally shot Alex LaMorie, a 25-year-old autistic man who had called them to report being harassed and blackmailed in Columbia early on March 1.
“After completing its investigation and evaluating all the available evidence, the Office of the Attorney General has determined that the subject officers did not commit a crime under Maryland law,” Brown said in an announcement. “Accordingly, the attorney general has declined to prosecute the subject officers in this case.”
The finding was issued by the attorney general’s Independent Investigations division, which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting police-involved incidents. Officials said they would be unable to secure a conviction of the officers for use of force or homicide offenses and that they could not disprove self-defense on the officers’ part.
State police collected 12 cartridge casings from the scene, according to The Washington Post.
In their report, investigators said LaMorie refused police orders to drop a knife and moved toward them before they fired. Police said LaMorie had made suicidal statements during the phone call to authorities. Body-camera footage reviewed by the Post showed that LaMorie did not lift the knife in the direction of the officers, the newspaper reported.
Jill Harrington, LaMorie’s mother, told the Post that the officers should have been charged with involuntary manslaughter. She said they “treated Alex’s life-threatening behavioral-medical crisis like a crime.”
“It represents a step backward, and risks undermining the state’s committed progress toward a more humane and effective crisis response system,” Harrington said in a statement to the Post.
LaMorie lived at Patuxent Commons, an inclusive housing community for people with and without disabilities. He had moved there days before the shooting.