Jurors begin deliberations in case of man accused of shooting two Baltimore County police officers in 2023 – Baltimore Sun

A Baltimore County jury began deliberating Wednesday afternoon in the case of David Linthicum, a Cockeysville man accused of shooting two county officers in February 2023.

David Linthicum, who turned 26 last week, is suspected of using a rifle to shoot three police officers who responded to his father's 911 call, in which he said his son was suicidal and carrying a gun. The next day, he shot and killed a police detective on a nearby street.

District Judge Garret P. Glennon dismissed the jury at 5:30 p.m. after they deliberated for about two hours. At one point, the jurors sent a note to court staff requesting “extra large gloves” for handling evidence.

Prosecutors initially charged Linthicum with 27 counts, including several counts of attempted murder, assault, car theft and similar offenses. During the trial, prosecutors decided to drop or not pursue some of the charges. All charges related to the alleged assault of Linthicum's father, John, were dropped.

After Linthicum fled the Powers Avenue home he shared with his father on February 8, 2023, Baltimore County police and other authorities searched for him for nearly two days before he was arrested in Fallston early on February 10.

During what prosecutors called a “manhunt,” Linthicum shot and wounded county detective Jonathan Chih as he stopped his police car on the side of Warren Road to track down someone he thought was a hitchhiker. Linthicum stole Chih's car and fled to Harford County.

In her closing argument Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Zarena Sita instructed jurors not to be “distracted” by the defense's criticisms of police conduct, such as the damage SWAT teams caused to the Powers Avenue home or the fact that a police officer left his body-worn camera behind while Linthicum was in the hospital and filmed him naked.

Sita also said that “suicide by police officer,” which the defense said Linthicum was attempting, was still a crime.

Linthicum fired 16 shots at Baltimore County officers Barry Jordan, April Burton (then April Arnett) and David Allen in the basement and fired 14 shots at Chih a day later, Sita said.

Sita slowed down the body camera footage shown during the trial so it played frame by frame. She showed Jordan's body camera recording Linthicum lying on his bed, pointing a rifle at police. In another video, bullet holes suddenly appear in a wall as officers flee upstairs. She described how Linthicum “lay in wait” until police arrived.

“He didn't want to talk. He didn't want help,” Sita said. “He just wanted to shoot.”

To find Linthicum guilty of attempted first-degree murder, the jury must find that his attempt to kill the police officers was intentional.

Sita said Linthicum emptied his 30-round magazine in Chih the day after he shot at police in the basement.

“The fact that the defendant ran out of bullets may have saved Detective Chih's life,” she said, pointing to a rifle cartridge in a crime scene photo near a bloodstain from Chih that Linthicum believed was “his fatal shot.”

“Two things can be true,” said Sita. “The defendant can be depressed and also want to harm the police officers.”

During the six-day trial, public defenders Deborah Katz Levi and James Dills described Linthicum as mentally ill and suicidal and said he fired out of desperation when he encountered police. The defense team closely examined several aspects of the police response, including officers' decision to go to the basement where they had been told Linthicum had a rifle and the failure to fully inform officers like Chih about the search for Linthicum.

“If everyone involved had done what they were trained to do, we wouldn't be here,” Levi said, adding that officers took “irrational risks” and ignored their training when they went into the basement without backup to approach an armed and suicidal young man.

She said there was no evidence that Linthicum knew he was shooting at police officers in the basement and described him as a son in the middle of an emotional argument with his father.

Levi also compared the behavior of the three officers unfavorably to that of Harford County Sheriff's Sergeant Anthony DeMarino, who testified Tuesday, and played video footage of DeMarino calmly talking with Linthicum in the woods of Fallston as helicopters buzzed overhead.

In the long-distance conversation, Linthicum and the sergeant talked about DeMarino's previous job as a personal chef for Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripken Jr. and cooking soups and stews.

“This is not a conversation with someone who wants to kill police officers,” Levi said.

She also said Linthicum believed Chih had come to kill him and fired in self-defense.

She instructed the jury to “send a message” to prosecutors on behalf of people with mental health issues by acquitting Linthicum of all charges except for the charge of carjacking Chih's police car, acknowledging that there was no defense in that case.

“You can tell the state that everyone was wrong that day,” she said.

In a rebuttal, Assistant District Attorney John Cox said Linthicum hates police officers and called Levi's criticism of police officers “outrageous.”

“We are dealing with real heroes here,” he said. “They are risking their lives for you.”

The three county officers Linthicum shot at the Powers Avenue home on Feb. 8 sat in their police vests in the front row of the courtroom gallery on Wednesday.