Baltimore County Police Officer Amy Caprio remembered with memorial sign
Danny Nyugen
The Baltimore Banner
December 4, 2024
Workers in reflective yellow garments were in position beneath the pedestrian overpass. About three dozen Baltimore County leaders and first responders then walked to a podium beside the roadway and revealed a blue sign. On a frigid morning, this was the workers’ cue to start a lift and hang a duplicate sign on the pedestrian bridge.
The sign, inscribed with the name Amy Sorrells Caprio, is a public memorial to a Baltimore County police officer who was killed in the line of duty in May 2018.
Caprio was responding to calls about a burglary in progress involving four suspects in Perry Hall when she followed a suspicious vehicle into a cul-de-sac. She got out of her cruiser and directed the driver, Dawnta Harris, to step out of his vehicle. But the vehicle instead struck Caprio, 29, who was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Harris was convicted of murder a year later and sentenced to life in prison. Three other teens involved — Eugene Genius, Derrick Matthews and Darrell Ward — pleaded guilty to felony murder and received 30-year sentences.
Winning approval for a sign typically involves an interested party writing a decision memo that explains the purpose of it and testifying before the county executive.
For Maj. Deanna Chemelli, Caprio’s shift manager at the Parkville precinct, the memo wrote itself. “Her approach, I would say, [involves] kindness and compassion. The way that she approached things tended to de-escalate situations and she was able to resolve most things pretty peacefully,” Chemelli said.
The memo worked its way through local government agencies for a year before getting final approval.
The sign, which hangs over Honeygo Boulevard in Honeygo Run Regional Park, is part of the county’s effort to honor officers who died on duty. In Baltimore County, 10 police officers have been killed on the job since the mid-1900s, according to the county Police Department.
Baltimore County ranks among the deadliest counties for local police departments, state data shows, though Baltimore City and Prince George’s County have far more, 140 and 30 police fatalities, respectively.
Caprio marks the latest police fatality in the county. This sign is the second memorial to Caprio. A plaque erected in 2019 stands at Perry Paw Dog Park.
The Police Department and community members, though, advocated placing the sign on the pedestrian walkway because it intersects with a busier stretch of Perry Hall. When state Sen. Kathy A. Klausmeier and her husband John mused about the possible signage here, he said he didn’t know there was a memorial for her already.
“John said, ‘Well, we don’t have a dog so I didn’t know it,’” she said.
County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. was on hand for the sign dedication. “We now know that countless residents will see it and will have the opportunity to reflect upon her courage and her service,” Olszewski said.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, Caprio had served with the department for three years and was survived by her husband, parents and sister.
Now, Debbie Sorrells says she sees her daughter’s spirit live on, not only through the sign but also in the county’s police officers.
“I believe that that Amy is working through all of the officers,” she said, adding that they take similarly compassionate approach to policing. “I see it and I feel it when I’m with them and that means an awful lot. Just being around them gives me a sense of peace.”
“It’s like having a stuffed toy,” Sorrells said. “The officers are my stuffed toys that I hang on to.”
She gave the officer next to her a hug.