State won’t charge Baltimore Police officers in fatal shooting of 70-year-old woman

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced Thursday that his office won’t charge two officers in connection with a West Baltimore incident in which one of them fatally shot a 70-year-old woman last June.

After nearly a yearlong investigation, state investigators concluded they couldn’t prove Baltimore Police officers Stephen Colbert and Stephen Galewski committed a crime in the fatal shooting of Pytorcarcha Brooks during a welfare check at her home.

Around 1 p.m. on June 25, 2025, a Maryland Department of Health social worker attempted to speak with Brooks at her home in the 2700 block of Mosher Street, but she didn’t answer the door, state officials said. So, the social worker contacted a family member and emergency services for a welfare check, officials said.

When Brooks’ relative entered her home, he said she attempted to stab him, officials said. That’s when her loved one called the police, saying Brooks was experiencing a mental health crisis.

Medics from the Fire Department and six Baltimore Police officers responded to the relative’s call for a welfare check at the home around 1:35 p.m. Colbert and another officer on the scene were trained in crisis intervention, state investigators said. Medics and police tried talking to Brooks through her back door, but got “incoherent statements and profanities,” state officials said.

In released bodycam footage, officers contemplated kicking down Brooks’ back door. She flashed a knife at officers and medics on the scene.

Responders determined that Brooks required an emergency petition and hospital transport for treatment, state officials said. According to state investigators, police decided to enter the home by breaching the front door, and Colbert declined the lead medic’s offer to call a firefighter with breaching tools to assist with entry.

Galewski and Colbert approached Brooks’ front door. Colbert kicked the door in, and Galewski followed, bodycam footage shows.

“I’m going hot with a Taser,” Galewski said.

Neither officer notified a supervisor or radioed in their entry efforts, state officials said. Some experts who spoke with The Banner last summer voiced concerns over why officers breached the door, saying it would have been better to “wait out” the mental health crisis.

“Both subject officers discussed their entry plans with other experienced officers on scene, including another CIT trained officer,” state investigators wrote. “None of the officers on scene voiced any objection to the entries or proposed an alternative solution, and they lined up behind the subject officers to assist them.”

Galewski deployed his Taser, which caused Brooks to fall to a sofa. She got up and charged toward the officer with a knife, bodycam footage shows.

Galewski backed away and fell in the process. As Brooks continued toward the officer, Colbert shot her.

The attorney general’s office said Colbert shot Brooks three times in her torso and once in her arm. She was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.

The incident prompted conversations about the efficacy of Baltimore Police’s crisis intervention training. Jaron Spriggs, Brooks’ brother and the pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, expressed to the City Council his concerns about police’s response to his sister’s mental health crisis.

“She was a major part of our family, and because of that, we suffer with the trauma of seeing it played out on the television over and over again, to hear others talk about,” Spriggs said. “We need to do more than just talk about stats and things that are on paper. Our policemen have to get some sort of training that they will know what to do in a situation like this.”

Baltimore Police shootings

Brooks was one of three people in West Baltimore who died at the hands of police in the span of about a week.

Around 3 a.m. the day Brooks was fatally shot, Dontae Melton, 31, died after 10 officers detained him near Franklintown Road and West Franklin Street amid a mental health crisis. Police called for a medic, but none showed due to the computer-aided dispatch system failing.

Almost 40 minutes after encountering Melton, police drove him about two minutes away to Grace Medical Center on West Baltimore Street, where he died. Earlier this year, the state declined to charge the officers involved in his death.

A week earlier, three police officers fatally shot Bilal “BJ” Abdullah, 36, in the 1700 block of Pennsylvania Avenue after he fired at and ran from officers. Police said they were pursuing Abdullah, a popular arabber, because he flashed a weapon and made threats to people in the area. Those officers were cleared of any wrongdoing by the attorney general’s office by December.

Of the four officer-involved deaths in Baltimore last year, including Jai Marc Howell, no officer faced state charges.

Baltimore Police have shot at least six people in 2026. Four of those shootings were fatal, including Jamarl Muse, 40, in January; Dwight Hawkins, 37, in February; Jonathan Ingram, 33, in March; and a man who reportedly fired at officers amid a mental health crisis on Thursday.