Police officer, bystander and armed suspect shot in wooded Pikesville park

Three people — a Baltimore County Police officer, an armed suspect and a bystander — were shot Sunday morning at a wooded park off Milford Mill Road in Pikesville, authorities said.

Baltimore County Police officers responded to Villa Nova Park by Milford Mill Road and Scotts Hill Drive around 8:50 a.m. for calls about a person who reportedly was indecently exposing themself.

As officers walked through the park, Chief Robert McCullough said, they encountered the suspect, who started shooting at them. One officer was struck by a bullet in the upper body. The officers returned fire, striking the suspect, McCullough said. A civilian in the park was struck by a bullet.

It remains unclear how many shots were exchanged and if it was an officer’s bullet or the suspect’s that hit the bystander. The officer, who has been with the department for a year and a half, was taken to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center via helicopter and is in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit, said Dave Efron, a doctor at the hospital.

The suspect and civilian, neither of whom was identified by police, were in stable condition Sunday afternoon.

Whether or not the suspect was indecently exposing themself to the public remains unclear. McCullough said the shooting is under investigation.

“This case highlights how dangerous policing is in America these days and [how] it’s unpredictable,” McCullough said.

Police shut down a stretch of the 900 block of Milford Mill Road for hours, establishing roadblocks near Deerfield Avenue and Scotts Level Road. Nearly two dozen police cars, unmarked police vehicles and crime scene vans crowded a wooded inlet near Milford Mill Trail, a park and trail system surrounded by residential neighborhoods.

Officers stood before the yellow crime scene tape taking notes and monitoring the area. The crime scene was deeper into the woods off a bike trail inside Villa Nova Park.

Felicia Hwang said she was cooking eggs and Spam around 9 a.m. when she heard multiple gunshots in the distance behind her Leafydale Terrace home.

She said the shots were shortly followed by a rush of sirens heading toward her neighborhood. Unsure what was going on, she saw several of her neighbors step into the street, likely hearing the same commotion she did and trying to understand what was happening.

Hwang said it wasn’t the first time she heard shots in the woods behind her house and that the area is frequented by teens who can be heard screaming and playing all hours of the night.

This article has been updated.