The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) arrested a carjacking suspect on Homewood Campus this afternoon at 2:02 p.m. The suspect, who was involved in a carjacking incident in the Southeast District of Baltimore a month ago, fled a vehicle and entered Homewood on foot. According to BPD Chief Spokesman T.J. Smith, the suspect was unarmed.
At 1:16 p.m., the University sent out an emergency alert saying that Whitehead Hall and the Power Plant building on the Homewood Campus were on lockdown. According to another alert sent 33 minutes later, the BPD was seeking a potentially armed suspect. The alert advised those on the Homewood Campus to take shelter indoors until further notice. The final emergency alert, sent 45 minutes after the first, wrote that the suspect had been taken into police custody and that people could resume normal activities.
Campus Security released a statement detailing the incident an hour after the final alert. They explained that the arrest took place west of campus in the Stony Run area through a combined effort from the BPD and Hopkins Security.
“Shortly after 1 p.m., we learned that Baltimore Police had pursued a suspect in a vehicle who crashed and fled near 32nd and Calvert streets, several blocks away from campus,” the statement read. “No injuries have been reported on campus.”
Senior Jordan Britton was in class on the third floor of Whitehead Hall when he received the first alert. He wrote that he could hear Campus Security and BPD officers from outside the classroom window.
“I found out what was happening through the alerts,” he wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “No one in Whitehead seemed to be directly informed by Security. The professor wasn't even made aware until about 30 minutes into the situation when another student made him aware of what was going on.”
Graduate student Lyle Poisson was working in Whitehead Hall during the lockdown. He wished that the University had been more clear about why there was a lockdown earlier on.
“We didn't know if there was an active shooter or what,” Poisson wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “We had no idea how serious the situation was.”
When asked whether this carjacking was related to the three recent carjackings in the area around Homewood Campus, Smith wrote that the one in question took place a month ago in a different area.
Editor’s Note: Jordan Britton is a frequent contributor to the Voices section and was not involved in reporting this piece.
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