From the Harford County Sheriff’s Office:
A Harford County man is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound that occurred in a residence located in the 2000 block of Stratton Court in Bel Air.
At approximately 1:34 a.m., on Monday, August 29, Patrol Deputies assigned to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office Southern Precinct were dispatched for the report of a suicidal subject. Upon arrival, deputies unsuccessfully attempted to make contact with the subject, identified as James Ward.
Patrol Deputies established a perimeter and moved to safeguard nearby residents. Deputies assigned to the Special Response Team of the Special Operations Division were requested to the scene and assumed command of the incident. Members of the Special Response Team, with assistance from the Crisis Negotiation Team, attempted to engage in negotiations with Ward to bring the incident to a peaceful conclusion.
After several hours of failed attempts to contact Ward, members of the Special Response Team gained access to the residence and located Ward on a lower floor, deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. No deputies fired any shots during the incident. No deputies, or community members, were injured during the incident.
Investigators and Forensic Service Unit Detectives from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division are conducting a comprehensive investigation into the incident.
During the incident, roads were closed making it impossible for buses and students to safely get to nearby schools. Out of an abundance of caution, Harford County Public Schools developed a plan to delay start times at Patterson Mill Middle/High School. All schools in the surrounding area are operating on normal dismissal schedules and all roads have been opened.
James Ward is a known subject to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office. On April 21, 2016, Ward was injured during a barricade incident at the same location when Harford County Sheriff’s Office Deputies shot him. During that incident Ward was shooting in the direction of Deputies.
And they didn’t want Wal Mart because it would make the area unsafe,
So anyone care to chime in the last time the Sheriff closed a school?
Four months ago, this guy shot at deputies in a similar barricade situation; why wasn’t he in jail?
Maybe because he was white and a productive member of the community…
Maybe because he was white. Period.
That is bull, stop the race stuff. People of color are not disproportionately detained or punished by the criminal justice system. Read Black Rednecks and White Liberals if you want some well sourced facts on the situation. The criminal justice system might be broke, but it isn’t racist.
Seems like a Patterson Mill Alum Kyle “the white Freddie Grey” Reddish is back to offending. See if he was Freddie Grey his spin would have been broken!
And your from where?
Cdev you act as if white criminals are the only one walking the streets. Here let me do the same thing look up Deonte Copenhaver, and figure out why he was out on the streets the night he commited the murder in Edgewood. He committed an armed robbery in 2012, but was out on the streets able to commit a murder in 2015. It’s broken not racist.
Because judges are useless.
We live a block away and clearly heard gun shots in 2 groupings. First we got a robocall at about 5:00am that told us that we might hear glass breaking and to shelter in place. Almost immediately we heard 2 shots. Then about 30 minutes later we got another robocall that told us to remain sheltered in place and similarly, almost immediately we counted 16 gun shots in close succession. Now maybe these were controlled explosives to try and gain entry, but they sure sounded like gun shots to us.
I am not sure what your point is. The article indicated that no shots were fired by the police. Are you insinuating that the police account of the incident was not accurate?
I am not insinuating anything. I’m just telling you what we heard almost immediately after receiving the 2 robocalls.
Open Your Eyes, don’t bother. She constantly does this because she is “in the know” with happenings all over Harford County. It is merely her trying to convey that she knows more than us. Makes for great community gossip.
Oh, and controlled explosions sound nothing like gunfire. Not even in the movies…LOL
If it wasn’t gunfire, that’s good. Too many guns in Maryland as it is. We take a walk at the Shucks Road park and hear rifles and shotguns firing in the distance. Uh . . . gang . . . there are people walking over here. Take the guns to West Virginia or Wyoming where no one will get hit by a stray bullet.
This guy got his justice. There is more to the story that you (the avg public) does not know. Just sayin…..
“(the avg public)”
LOL
You must be in Harford Resident’s gossip circle. HAHAHAHAHA
It was not gunfire…….
Ever heard of flash bangs…
It sure sounded like gunfire. We were wide awake, with our windows open and there was not another sound so we heard the noise very clearly and my spouse counted the shots: 2 in the first event, 16 in the second event.
Once again, flash bangs
Fired with a gun no doubt – hence the gun shots. Not sure why they just don’t be upfront and say that in the media.
Flash Bangs are deployed by hand, like a grenade. Look it up on Youtube and you can see plenty of examples of them being used.
A in B.A., like I told someone above…don’t bother. If you dare take a different / opposing view than her, she will ramble on and on about how right she is and how wrong you are. This is a recurring theme with her on Dagger Press, and is evident with her repeated attempts to tell everyone about the number of times she heard “bang” (going so far as to say that flash-bangs are fired with a gun – LOL!)
No doubt this provided gossip in her circles for days on end, and her army of Starbucks Moms were amazed that she had so much “insider information”.
With her living a block away, yet stating “there was not another sound”, it is apparent that she was far enough away that she didn’t hear the ambient noise common to scenes like this. Radio traffic, engines running, conversations, etc…
Because of this, it is not unreasonable to assume that her husband could have heard a single gunshot in the first incident, followed by the echo…hence, 2 gunshots.
A flash-bang is a single sound, not multiple as in “16 shots”, so not sure how that would work. Doubt they threw 16 in rapid succession, poor guy, LOL.
Wait, is that a car door slamming? Oops, gunshot.
Neighbors TV on too loud? Gunshot.
Wife flushing the toilet? Gunshot.
Delivery truck backfiring on Laurel Bush Road? Gunshot.
Add a few more to make yourself sound better, dear. The gossip circle of Bright Oaks Drive will love it and you will be their leader for months!
Easy for you to comment sitting in your Cedarday mansion. Us middle class Bright Oaks folks have to deal with issues from which you are well insulated.
By the way, the Command center for this incident was located in the parking lot of the real estate agency on the corner of Bright Oaks and 924. All the noise of engines running , radio chatter etc., was up there – far away from my location very close to the shooting.
Oh . . . and are you insinuating that I was lying when I said we received 2 robo-calls from the Sheriff’s department telling us to shelter in place? Why would they tell us to shelter in place if they had no intention of firing their weapons?
Oh . . . and one of our neighbors is a Baltimore County detective. After people in this forum stated that there was no gunfire, but rather flash-bangs, I asked him what he knew. His reply: “The sounds you heard were more than flash-bangs.”