A naked man who was shot by Baltimore Police after he ran at them with a machete should not be held criminally liable for his actions because he suffers from schizophrenia, a judge ruled.
Russom Gebretsadik, 39, of Carrollton Ridge, pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree assault and carrying a dangerous weapon in the violent encounter with officers on Dec. 30, 2023. But he maintained that his mental illness prevented him from understanding what he did was wrong or from being able to stop himself.
Circuit Judge Gale Rasin, who presides over the Mental Health Court program in Baltimore Circuit Court, agreed.
Heeding findings from doctors from the Maryland Department of Health, and with no objections from prosecutors or defense attorneys, the judge deemed Gebretsadik not criminally responsible. She ordered him committed indefinitely to the health department’s custody for psychiatric care.
People deemed not criminally responsible can only be released if health department doctors find that their treatment leads to them no longer presenting a danger to themselves or others. An administrative law judge has to agree with their findings at a hearing where prosecutors and defense attorneys can weigh in.
“There is abundant evidence that he suffered from a mental illness,” Rasin said in court on Wednesday. “He was psychotic, suffered from prosecutorial delusions, and frequently complained of burning sensations which he believed others were inflicting on him.”
The roughly hourlong hearing was prolonged by the fact that Gebretsadik speaks little English. The proceedings had to be translated to his native Tigrinya, a language spoken in the African countries of Eritrea and Ethiopia.
“I was not in full control of myself at that time or at that period,” Gebretsadik said through an interpreter at one point.
He appeared remotely at the hearing on a video call from Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, the state’s maximum security psychiatric facility.
Around 9 a.m. the day of the police shooting, officers patrolling Southwest Baltimore saw a naked man running in the 2000 block of West Pratt Street, Assistant State’s Attorney Tracy Lee Varda said. Concerned about his mental state, the officers followed the man, who they later identified as Gebretsadik, into a residence.
Once the officers entered, Gebretsadik hurled objects at them from the top of a staircase. Varda said he then charged down the stairs at the officers holding a machete in one hand and a large fixed-blade knife in the other. An officer opened fire, striking Gebretsadik in the femur. They tended to his injuries.
“Probably saved his life,” Police Commissioner Richard Worley said of his officers rendering aid, while speaking to reporters on the day of the shooting.
In a separate case, Gebretsadik also admitted Wednesday to attacking and seriously wounding a nurse at Sinai Hospital when he was under their care on Aug. 10, 2023. He pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree assault. Like the case involving the police officers, he maintained that he was mentally ill.
Rasin found him not criminally responsible in that case, too, and ordered Gebretsadik to the health department’s care.
“The doctor concluded that his severe detachment from reality explained his actions,” Rasin said, later adding that the defendant told doctors that the nursing staff was inflicting pain on him through radiation.
The nurse who suffered injuries to her head and neck as a result of Gebretsadik’s attack told Rasin someone could’ve died because of his actions.
“I’m not here to ask for punishment,” the nurse said. “I’m here to ask for the help that he needs and that he is strictly and closely monitored.”
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