Sword Wielding Man Attacks Police Tactical Team!

While there doesn’t seem to be any specific martial arts angle to this story, I thought the fact that the attacker used a sword might be of general interest to bullies.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-07-13/news/bs-md-co-police-shooting-20120713_1_police-involved-shootings-police-officer-shot-baltimore-county-officers

Baltimore Co. officer fatally shoots man who attacked him with sword

Police say officers had been serving search warrant

July 13, 2012|By Jessica Anderson, The Baltimore Sun

A Baltimore County police officer shot and killed the sword-wielding uncle of an attempted-murder suspect Thursday, authorities said, in a bizarre end to a case that began when a teen was found in a Howard County field last month with a gunshot wound to the head.

Police said the man, Ronald Melvin Cox, 48, swung a large sword at tactical officers as they entered an upstairs bedroom in his home in the 400 block of Highmeadow Road in Reisterstown. He was pronounced dead at the scene

Investigators revealed little about the circumstances surrounding the encounter, which came as police executed a search warrant, including whether people in the home were notified before officers entered. Two people were arrested at Cox’s home, but police couldn’t say whether that took place before or after the police shooting.

The officer who shot Cox, a 17-year veteran, has been placed on administrative leave, which is routine in police-involved shootings; no further information was available, and the officer was not identified.
Three people were charged with attempted murder in the case of Sterling Watts, found June 19 in a field by a nearby resident in Marriottsville.

Laura Christian Karr, 24, who was Cox’s niece and lived at his home, and Donald George Peoples Jr., 21, of the 4200 block of Saint Georges Ave. in Baltimore were arrested at the home. Chiquita Sketers, 21, of Randallstown was arrested without incident about 2 p.m. Friday at her home in the 3400 block of Carriage Hill Circle in Randallstown.

Cox was not a suspect in Watts’ shooting, according to police spokeswoman Cathy Batton.

According to Howard County police, Peoples and Karr abducted Watts as he walked near his home and forced him into a car. Police believe the couple then stopped in Randallstown to pick up Sketers, who had a long-barrel rifle loaded with ammunition. Sketers told Watts he was going to die, police said.

The suspects drove to the field and ordered Watts out of the car at gunpoint. Peoples is accused of shooting him in the back of the head as he walked away.

After interviews with Watts and an anonymous tip, detectives identified Peoples and Karr as suspects, and Karr’s silver 2012 Mazda as the vehicle involved in the kidnapping.

Police said witnesses identified a couple matching Peoples’ and Karr’s descriptions driving a silver car and selling drugs in a Reisterstown neighborhood. The witnesses told police that the couple selling drugs had been robbed earlier that day.

The warrants in the case were issued in Howard County and executed by Baltimore County officers.

No one answered the door Friday at the residence on Highmeadow Road. A few cars sat in the driveway of the brick-and-vinyl-siding house.

While the winding street was quiet, a few neighbors said they had been awakened by the activity outside after the shooting.

Chris Kauffman, 27, who lives nearby, said he slept through the shooting and was shocked to see all the commotion when he went to walk his dog about 5 a.m.

“I’ve never felt threatened here. Everyone was surprised because this is such a quiet street,” said Kauffman, the service manager for his father’s business, Baltimore Hydraulics.

Batton said police announced themselves before the shooting to make clear to any occupants that they were in the home. “They were identifying themselves as police officers and began moving throughout the house,” she said. Batton.

Karr and Peoples face charges from February for allegedly concealing a dangerous weapon and for possession of marijuana, according to court records. Peoples also faces burglary and second-degree assault charges from another incident in December.

Both are being held in the Howard County Detention Center. Sketers was to be taken to the same facility.

Batton said the shooting was the second involving a Baltimore County police officer this year.

Anyone keeping a tally of the number of reported sword attacks in a year?

This is the second sword attack in Baltimore in the past couple years. I was called in to consult on the last one by local news. Styygens, what conclusions do you think we can draw from these events?

Unless the guy who shot you also swings an unusual weapon at officers, the Baltimore media apparently that isn’t interested in the average teen found shot in the head in a field somewhere…to make the news these days you need a little spice I guess.

Swords…zombies…can’t wait for the next season of The Walking Dead, can you?

Randolph Watts said Saturday he was frustrated with media for seeking information on his son only after the sword attack, which he first learned about when reporters called Friday. Sterling Watts has been in and out of consciousness, with the bullet lodged in his brain stem, Randolph Watts said, but when awake he has been speaking fine.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-07-14/news/bs-md-watts-stable-20120714_1_sword-attack-baltimore-county-police-large-sword

Back in high school days a friend of mine and I were at the beach when some drunk guys showed up ranting and raving and talking about beating us up, one guy had a baseball bat.I pulled one of those 440 ss katana knock offs out of my car and unsheathed it (looking back I have no idea why i carried that in my car) the look on the faces of the guys still makes me laugh. They just got back in their truck and drove off. Truth be told, I would not have known much of what to do with it and am probably lucky they just left. If I only had a nickel for all the crazy, stupid stuff I did as a kid lol

I have a Suburito in the back of my car. This makes me want to replace it with a sword!

Mr. Cox missed the original memo: Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight (no matter how big the knife is). Very bad decision.

[QUOTE=Bodhi108;2705276]This is the second sword attack in Baltimore in the past couple years. I was called in to consult on the last one by local news. Styygens, what conclusions do you think we can draw from these events?[/QUOTE]

Well – obviously – the Maryland General Assembly will pass legislation to ban the sale, importation, and possession of swords during their next session.

Governor Martin O’Malley will use his calm voice of reason to explain to voters that this is necessary to make the lives of Maryland’s children safer. He will do this on local television, and also on several of the Sunday Morning National talking head shows. He will tout this as an example of his progressive leadership. The money will pour into his campaign warchest from national donors.

Current owners of swords will be grandfathered if they register their swords with the State Police and pay a registration fee per sword. This fee, we will be assured, is not a tax.

This will have the unforseen economic effect of plummeting attendance at Maryland’s Renaissance Festival. It will ripple through Maryland’s large community of LARPers involved with SCA, Darkon, and – of course – ninjutsu. The associated revenue in sales tax will not be collected, and the fees assessed on existing sword owners will not offest the loss. MD legislative leadership will act shocked. Fed-up sword owners will move out of Maryland to a more sword-friendly jurisdiction. More tax revenue will be lost. The General Assembly will pass more taxes to offset the revenue lost…

Eventually Martin O’Malley will run for President of the United States in 2016 and any effort discuss his record on sword-registration and regulation will be dismissed by his campaign as nit-picky and silly. The American people, we’ll be told, want to focus on real issues…

But really, I’m just speculating…

[QUOTE=Styygens;2705426]Well – obviously – the Maryland General Assembly will pass legislation to ban the sale, importation, and possession of swords during their next session.

Governor Martin O’Malley will use his calm voice of reason to explain to voters that this is necessary to make the lives of Maryland’s children safer. He will do this on local television, and also on several of the Sunday Morning National talking head shows. He will tout this as an example of his progressive leadership. The money will pour into his campaign warchest from national donors.

Current owners of swords will be grandfathered if they register their swords with the State Police and pay a registration fee per sword. This fee, we will be assured, is not a tax.

This will have the unforseen economic effect of plummeting attendance at Maryland’s Renaissance Festival. It will ripple through Maryland’s large community of LARPers involved with SCA, Darkon, and – of course – ninjutsu. The associated revenue in sales tax will not be collected, and the fees assessed on existing sword owners will not offest the loss. MD legislative leadership will act shocked. Fed-up sword owners will move out of Maryland to a more sword-friendly jurisdiction. More tax revenue will be lost. The General Assembly will pass more taxes to offset the revenue lost…

Eventually Martin O’Malley will run for President of the United States in 2016 and any effort discuss his record on sword-registration and regulation will be dismissed by his campaign as nit-picky and silly. The American people, we’ll be told, want to focus on real issues…

But really, I’m just speculating…[/QUOTE]

I want to hate you…but I can’t.

[QUOTE=slamdunc;2705361]Mr. Cox missed the original memo: Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight (no matter how big the knife is). Very bad decision.

[/QUOTE]

Didn’t mythbusters do the whole 21 foot rule experiment?? Even at close range I would say it’s a fight I wouldn’t want to be on either side of.

[QUOTE=Bneterasedmynam;2705717]Didn’t mythbusters do the whole 21 foot rule experiment?? Even at close range I would say it’s a fight I wouldn’t want to be on either side of.[/QUOTE]

Normally that rule is for someone who has a gun, but it is holstered. In this case, the officers already had their guns out. In that instance, the person with the gun usually wins.