No charges for Baltimore County officers in 2 fatal shootings in 2025

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said he would not bring charges against seven Baltimore County Police Department officers involved in two separate fatal shootings last year.

The decisions were announced on Tuesday afternoon after Maryland’s Independent Investigations Division concluded its investigations. One shooting, in Dundalk, involved six officers, a majority of whom had three or more years of service, and the other involved a 28-year veteran in Arbutus.

In Arbutus, Detective Todd Wiedel shot 51-year-old Arvel Jones Sr. on the morning of April 23, 2025. Jones was wearing a ski mask and reportedly shooting arrows at passing cars near the 5100 block of Leeds Avenue, according to the IID’s report.

Wiedel, who was in plain clothes, confronted Jones after responding to a call for backup from a uniformed police officer who found Jones carrying a bow and arrow, according to a news release from the attorney general.

When Wiedel spotted Jones at the intersection of Leeds and North avenues, investigators said, the detective got out of his cruiser and then “almost simultaneously” drew his handgun as Jones turned toward him with his bow loaded with an arrow. Both discharged their weapons, according to the news release. The arrow missed Wiedel, but Jones was struck by gunfire. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The confrontation lasted for less than a minute, the investigators found through police radio calls. There was not enough evidence to determine who fired first, the report said.

Wiedel was not wearing a body camera, and the uniformed officer who asked for backup activated his body camera after the shooting, according to the investigation. The footage captured after the shooting showed Wiedel giving Jones medical aid and calling for emergency services, the report said.

When the shooting happened, Jones’ son, Arvel Jones Jr., told WJZ-TV that his father may have been having a mental health episode but that he “wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“At that moment, he just might not have had his medication, but that doesn’t make it right for you to take his life,” the younger Jones said.

Wiedel did not make a statement to investigators. Joy Lepola-Stewart, a spokesperson with the Baltimore County Police Department, said in an email that Wiedel has returned to duty.

The attorney general’s Independent Investigations Division concluded its investigation of the shooting on Feb. 24 and released its report to the public on Tuesday.

“After completing its investigation and evaluating all the available evidence, the Office of the Attorney General has determined that the subject officer did not commit a crime under Maryland law,” the news release from the attorney general’s office said.

6 officers get no charges in barricade incident

The attorney general said six officers who shot at and killed an armed man who was firing from inside a Dundalk home did not act criminally.

The Baltimore County Police officers involved in the shooting are Andrew Meyer, Malik McLaughlin, Austin Kiss, Nicholas Cook, Mason Rice and Luke Eubert. The man they shot was 55-year-old Robert Adams, whose mother told police that he was mentally ill and hallucinating, according to body camera footage.

The officers responded to the 2100 block of Larkhall Road just after 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 after receiving reports that a man was firing a shotgun, according to a news release from the attorney general. In the body camera footage, Eubert reports movement in the second-floor window. Seconds later, Cook yells that Adams has a gun.

All six officers fired their weapons.

Officers entered the house two hours later and found Adams dead on the first floor, police said, adding that they recovered two firearms from the second-floor window.

The IID concluded its investigation into the shooting on Feb. 24.

WJZ is a media partner of The Banner.