Baltimore County jury finds Cockeysville man guilty of attempted murder in officer shootings in February 2023
Cassidy Jensen
The Baltimore Sun
September 27, 2024
David Linthicum, the man accused of shooting two county police officers last year, is guilty of attempted murder and assault, a Baltimore County jury decided Thursday.
The jury found Linthicum, 26, guilty of four counts of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of four police officers, along with four counts of using a firearm in a crime of violence and one count of armed carjacking.
Jurors began deliberating at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, after six days of testimony and evidence, and reached a verdict Thursday afternoon.
Before the verdict was read, Linthicum turned around and signed “I love you” in American Sign Language toward the courtroom gallery where his mother, who is deaf, and father were sitting.
The criminal case that emerged from February 2023’s high-profile law enforcement search for an armed, suicidal man across Baltimore and Harford counties was a contentious one, with Linthicum’s defense team seeking to blame police for exacerbating a mental health crisis and accusing both prosecutors and Baltimore County Judge Garret P. Glennon of bias.
A county grand jury indicted Linthicum, 26, on 27 counts last year, but prosecutors dismissed some of those charges during trial, which began Sept. 17 after a jury was chosen.
The maximum sentence for attempted first-degree murder — which requires premeditation — is life imprisonment. The firearms offenses each carry a maximum of 20 years in prison, while the maximum sentence for armed carjacking is 30 years. A date has not been set for sentencing.
Deputy State’s Attorney John Cox said outside the Baltimore County Circuit Court in Towson that the verdict represented “justice.”
“That’s exactly what happened,” he said of the jury’s ruling.
Assistant State’s Attorney Zarena Sita called the case a “long, hard-fought battle” that was difficult for the officers Linthicum fired at, three of whom sat in the courtroom’s front row Thursday.
“This is an individual who attempted to take lives of four Baltimore County Police officers. There is absolutely no blame on the police for them trying to do their job,” Cox said in response to a question about the defense’s case.
Linthicum’s attorneys, Deborah Katz Levi, the director of special litigation of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, and James Dills, district public defender for Baltimore County, say they plan to file an appeal.
“Mr. Dills and I implore the citizens of Maryland to adopt an alternative response model to mental health crisis so this kind of event does not happen again in the future,” Levi wrote in a text message to The Baltimore Sun. “Most certainly, certainly, Mr. Linthicum does not deserve to spend the rest of his life in prison as a result of the events that happened in February of 2023.”
Prosecutors argued that Linthicum should be held accountable for shooting a rifle at three police officers who arrived at his Cockeysville home Feb. 8, 2023, in response to his father’s 911 call reporting his son was armed and suicidal, before shooting and critically wounding a police detective a day later amid a multicounty search for him.
Describing Linthicum as mentally ill, his defense attorneys criticized the initial police response and what they described as communication misfires amid the “manhunt.”
In particular, Levi faulted officers for entering his locked bedroom with his father after police were told Linthicum had a rifle inside with him. Linthicum fired at them through a wall, striking one officer, Barry Jordan.
Another officer, April Burton, said later in an exchange captured on her body-worn camera that she believed police had “agitated the situation.” She testified during the trial that she had meant that Linthicum didn’t want the help of police.
Linthicum fled the Powers Avenue home that afternoon as authorities locked down local schools and warned neighbors to shelter indoors. SWAT teams surrounded the Cockeysville street, drove tactical vehicles around the yard and threw flash bangs into the suburban home, breaking the glass on the door’s front window in the process.
In the evening of Feb. 9, 2023, a Baltimore County detective, Jonathan Chih, drove down Warren Road to check on a report of a man walking along the dark road. He pulled his police pickup truck over, thinking Linthicum was a hitchhiker.
“Are you here to kill me?” asked Linthicum, according to Chih’s body-worn camera video, as the detective stepped out of the truck.
“No, why?” Chih replied just as shots rang out, according to the videos.
Chih testified last week about the shooting and his injuries, which have prevented him from returning to full duty more than a year and a half after the shooting.
Linthicum stole Chih’s police Dodge Ram truck, the single charge his defense team conceded during closing arguments, and fled into Harford County, where he was arrested eventually without injury.
Sita told reporters she called Chih right after the verdict. Asked about his reaction to the news, she said, “I believe that he is happy that this is resolved.”