Shelger identified as attacker of HopCops

The Criminal Division of Baltimore City District Court has confirmed that Johns Hopkins University sophomore Reed Shelger was the student involved in the January incident in which two Hopkins Security Officers were assaulted.

Shelger has been indefinitely suspended from school, according to Associate Dean of Students Dorothy Sheppard. Hopkins has yet to hold any sort of disciplinary hearing on the matter. "It was an automatic suspension for [an] indefinite [period of time] until the hearing was to occur," said Sheppard.

According to Shelger's attorney, Steven Tully, Shelger is currently at home in Texas with his parents.

Shelger was arrested on Jan. 21 and charged with two counts of aggravated assault, four counts of second degree assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to records obtained from the criminal division of the Baltimore City Circuit Court Clerk's Office.

Shelger had been scheduled to appear in court last Thursday for a preliminary hearing, but the date of his appearance was pushed back at the request of the defense, according to the court.

Tully cited his own involvement in a homicide case as the reason for the postponement.

At a preliminary hearing, the state only has to show probable cause that a felony was committed, according to Tully. Hearsay is admissible and the defense cannot testify. "Nothing too definitive" goes on at a preliminary hearing, said Tully.

Afterwards, the case usually goes to trial later on in circuit or district court.

In the early morning of Jan. 21, Shelger had allegedly been involved in a fight at P.J.'s Pub and returned to his home in the Bradford apartments. Security and the paramedics were called and he was transported to Union Memorial Hospital. According to the Security Report, Shelger then ran out of the hospital. Security received a call from a member of the Residential Life Staff asking that Shelger not be allowed back into the Bradford Apartments.

Officers Wayne Cox and Richard Watts went to the Bradford Apartments to attempt to convince him to return to Union Memorial when he assaulted them. Watts received a bruise to the eye and minor scratches to his cornea and Shelger spit in Cox's face, head-butted him and proceeded to kick him in the jaw and body while he was on the ground. Both officers were taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital.