Trooper Shot This Morning (Maryland)

[10-42Adam]

Associated Press

Posted Tuesday, December 12, 2006 at 6:59 am
WOODLAWN, Md. -- State police say a trooper was shot and wounded this morning in Baltimore County.

It happened about 5 a.m. on Forest Park Avenue in Woodlawn.

Troopers at the Golden Ring barracks say the trooper was flown to Shock Trauma in Baltimore. His condition isn't known.







I hope he or she is okay...

[10-42Adam]

Story by thewbalchannel.com



WBAL-TV 11 News reported that a Maryland State Trooper and a suspect sought by the Warrant Fugitive Task Force were shot during police activity Tuesday morning.

Sources told 11 News that the trooper, identified as Eric Workman, was working with the Task Force in the 5500 block of West Forest Park Avenue in Woodlawn when he was shot in the back. Baltimore County Fire Department officials confirmed the shooting and said the trooper was taken to Shock Trauma.

A Baltimore City Police Department representative confirmed that the suspect in the incident was also shot. A source told 11 News reporter Jennifer Franciotti that the suspect died.

The trooper and the suspect have not been identified. The trooper's condition is not being released at this time.

[Star Man]

My prayers for him.

[Ducky]

Best hopes for the officer, and I do believe I hear the yawning pits of hell opening for the guy that did it.

[10-42Adam]

WOODLAWN, Md. -- A Maryland State Police trooper was wounded and a suspect was shot and killed early today when members of a special police task force attempted to serve a warrant.

The officers were attempting to arrest a suspect in a home invasion and kidnapping in Eldersburg on Thursday.

The wounded trooper, Trooper First Class Eric D. Workman, 36, was hit in the left armpit and was "critically ill," said. Dr. Thomas Scalea, the head of surgery at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

"This is not over by a long, long shot," said Scalea, adding that he treated Workman several years ago and had gotten to know him both as a police officer and a friend.

Scalea said the bullet went through Workman's left chest and into the left side of his abdomen, damaging his left kidney, left lung and the left side of his spleen.

State police spokesman Greg Shipley said Workman was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time of the shooting.

Police did not immediately release the name of the suspect in the shooting, which occurred about 5 a.m. in the Woodlawn area of Baltimore County, just west of the county's border with the city of Baltimore.

Members of the task force, including Workman and city officers, were looking for a second suspect in the Eldersburg home invasion, said Lt. Col. Michael J. Fischer, chief of the Field Operations Bureau of the state police.

Shipley said the officers were let into the home and when they started to climb a flight of stairs, the man who was killed appeared at the top of the stairway and opened fire before he was shot by the officers.

How many shots were fired has not been determined, Shipley said.

Fischer said Workman has been with the force since 1997, is highly decorated and known for his "dedication and tenacity."

On Thursday, two men burst into a Eldersburg home and restrained two men and a woman with handcuffs and duct tape. When another man arrived at the home, he was also handcuffed and one of the suspects then took him to a Randallstown check-cashing business.

Family members contacted police, who found the victim and one of the suspects in Randallstown. Officers arrested Ronald J. Presco, 36, of Baltimore.

The second suspect fled the Eldersburg home before state police arrived.

Fischer said investigation led to an arrest warrant for the suspect at the Woodlawn address, which officers were attempting to serve today.

Scalea said he got to know Workman when he was treated at Shock Trauma in 1998 after a car hit him while he stood on the shoulder of the Capital Beltway in Prince George's County. The impact sent him flying 60 feet into another trooper, who tried to break Workman's fall.

Workman and the other officer had been flagging down speeding drivers. As he approached a car the troopers had ordered to the shoulder, three approaching vehicles suddenly slowed and collided with each other. Another driver, trying to avoid that crash, swerved onto the shoulder and struck Workman.





I'm happy to hear the updated news...

[gozling]

my thoughts and prayers are with him

[Ducky]

Wow, sounds like he's one tough cookie. I hope that tenacity will see him through this, too.

[Willowdared]

Thougts and prayers enroute.

[LAW DOG]

our prayers are with him and his family

[Ducky]

Critically Wounded Md. Trooper Steadily Recovering





(WJZ/AP) Baltimore, MD Wounded state trooper Eric Workman was sitting up and answering questions from family members on Thursday.

Eyewitness News was there as family members fielded questions about Workman's recovery process. "He looks good, his color is good. They say he's well ahead of what they expected," said the trooper's father, Gary D. Workman, a former Secret Service agent.

The elder Workman spoke to the media at a news conference attended by eight family members outside the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center, where his son is recuperating.

The trooper's father said his son can answer "yes and no, but it's difficult for him to talk because there are a lot of tubes."

The shooting is the second major hospitalization for the state trooper in the past eight years, following an accident in which he was hit by a vehicle during a traffic detail and severely injured.

Despite the two incidents, the trooper's father said his son always wanted to be a police officer and he would support his son if he wanted to return to duty. "It's just something he always wanted to do and I support him, if he's physically able after this, he should go back," said the Mount Lookout, W.Va., resident.

Eric Workman, who lives in Catonsville, spent time at his father's place in West Virginia during his last recuperation, fishing at times at a lake on the property, and his father said he expected to see him there again.

Asked whether family members had talked about the two accidents and his ability to recover, the father said his son is tough, but "we don't want to test those nine lives, we definitely don't. This is enough, but I'll support him if he goes back."

The wounded trooper, who was wearing a ballistic vest, was shot after he and other officers entered a home seeking a suspect in a home invasion. State police said Steven T. Jones, 38, appeared at the top of a stairway and opened fire before he was killed by return fire.

Workman was hit in the left armpit and the bullet traveled through his left chest and into his abdomen, damaging his left kidney, left lung and the left side of his spleen, hospital officials said.

Jones' father said his son had been living at his Woodlawn home since his release from prison in August.

Michael Rock told Eyewitness News he answered his door early Tuesday and let in about six police officers, who walked upstairs toward his son's room. Gunfire quickly erupted, leaving his son dead. "Upstairs sounded like a war in Vietnam," Rock said.

The gun battle left six bullet holes at the top of a staircase, two more nearby and a blood-soaked carpet, Rock said.

Police said the suspect whom officers were trying to arrest was a man who had fled an Eldersburg home Thursday after a home invasion. Two men had burst into the home, restraining the homeowner's son, a daughter and the daughter's fiance with handcuffs and duct tape.

When the homeowner's other son, a 25-year-old man, came to the house, one of the suspects handcuffed him and forced him at gunpoint to go to a check-cashing and bail bonds business in Randallstown where the victim worked.

Relatives of the victim notified Baltimore County police, who rescued the victim and arrested Ronald J. Presco, 36, of Baltimore.

The second suspect fled the Eldersburg home before state police arrived.

http://wjz.com/topstories/local_story_346205034.html

[eMachine]

A Baltimore County Officer was shot yesterday chasing a suspect. He is doing okay. This week we have three Officers in Shock Trauma. A State Trooper (shot during warrant service), a Baltimore City Officer (shot during a robbery), and a Baltimore County Officer (shot during a robbery).

Prayers for all three.