Imagine sitting down to get your hair cut on your Saturday afternoon off and having a gunman burst in and shoot your barber. That is the exact scenario one Baltimore police sergeant was faced with.
Stepping In
According to The Baltimore Sun, the officer grabbed his own gun, fired upon the shooter, and killed him. The suspect, Carlos Ortega, 38, was also tied to the shootings of two more people that day.
Javier Villegas Cotto, 44, died from the gunshot wounds while the second gunshot victim had critical injuries. According to investigators, Ortega would up at The Bladi Style barbershop at the 5700-block of O'Donnell Street.
That is where he shot and killed Rafael Jeffers, a 33-year-old barber, around 3:16 p.m. According to Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison, the officer, who was in plain clothes, was not injured.
Harrison told reporters that the officer showed "great bravery" throughout the ordeal. "This is something the average person wouldn't do," Mayor Brandon Scott said. "And this is something that our officers do each and every day in the city of Baltimore."
Scott pointed out that the gunman could have killed many others that day if the sergeant had not stepped in. The gunman could have very well continued his shooting spree throughout the city. Thankfully the sergeant was there to stop him.