Authorities on Monday released the names of two Baltimore Police officers who shot and killed a 46-year-old man last week after police said he opened fire during an apparent mental health crisis in Southwest Baltimore.
Officers Sharod Watson and Mark Rankine fatally shot Louis Jackson of Baltimore on Thursday morning, according to the Maryland attorney general’s Independent Investigations Division, which investigates all fatalities involving police.
Watson, a 13-year Baltimore Police veteran, and Rankine, who has been with the agency for three years, were both assigned to patrol, according to the attorney general’s office.
A 911 call on Thursday morning reported that a man was suicidal and armed in the area around Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital, Baltimore Police officials said.
When officers responded to the 800 block of Caton Avenue in the Saint Agnes neighborhood just after 9 a.m., a man opened fire on them, police said. The man ignored officers’ orders to drop his weapon and get on the ground. Instead, according to police, he continued firing in their direction.
Two officers shot back, striking the man, police said. The officers on the scene aided the man until he was transported to the nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
According to police, investigators found a revolver at the shooting scene. No officers were injured.
A witness told The Banner at the time that she heard officers tell an armed man to drop his weapon and saw the man refuse.
In an instant, the woman said, the man was on the ground “bleeding profusely.”
Jackson’s family could not immediately be reached Monday evening. Baltimore Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The attorney general’s office said in a news release that investigators are still trying to determine the circumstances of the fatal shooting. Investigators ask anyone with information to call them at 410-576-7070.
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