Neighbors decry Baltimore police shooting

Special to the World

BALTIMORE - Eyewitnesses say that a plainclothes Baltimore police officer shot Larry Hubbard dead with a single bullet in the back of his head as the African-American man pleaded for his life Thursday evening, Oct. 7.

"That entire block heard [Hubbard] shouting, 'Please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me,' and then we heard a muffled pop," said Kelly Brown who told the Baltimore Sun she saw the incident from less than 10 feet away.

The two white plainclothes officers involved in the shooting claim that Hubbard engaged them in a violent scuffle and was grabbing for one of their sidearms. In the struggle the weapon accidentally went off, striking Hubbard, they said.

The officers claim they had been following Hubbard and another man who were driving a vehicle reported stolen from Montgomery County. When the police attempted to pull them over, the two men leaped from the car. Hubbard ran down an alley but the police apprehended him at the other end where the alleged scuffle took place.

The coroner's report that Hubbard died from a single gunshot wound to the back of his head threw the police version into immediate doubt, especially when eyewitnesses agreed that Hubbard had been pleading for his life.

This is the 15th reported police shooting in Baltimore this year, four of them fatal.

The officer who shot Hubbard with his 9 mm Glock handgun was identified as Barry Hamilton, 55, with eight years in the police department. The other officer involved is Robert Quick Jr., 26, who has been on the force four years.

Quick is one of three city officers named in a federal lawsuit filed in March by an East Baltimore man who says he was subjected to racial epithets during an arrest three years ago for possessing an open container of alcoholic beverage.

Hubbard was described as a quiet man who enjoyed rap music and basketball. He was the father of a 2-year-old girl and his girlfriend expects a second child next month. He attended Fairmount/Harford High School and had worked for a flower shop as a teenager.

His mother, Deborah Carr, said he had wanted to be a florist. At the time of his death felony drug and robbery charges were pending against him.

A neighborhood coalition scheduled a rally Oct. 13 in front of the main Enoch Pratt Library where the candidates in Baltimore's mayoral election were to speak at a forum, including the winner in last month's Democratic primary, Martin O'Malley.

"Place the candidates on notice that Baltimore City will not tolerate police killings," the leaflet on the rally declared. "Martin O'Malley ran on a platform of 'zero tolerance,' pledging to make this city like New York City. 'Zero Tolerance' is a code name for increased police abuse. The policy of 'zero tolerance' led to the gunning down of Amadou Diallo and the torture of Abner Louima" in New York, the leaflet charged.