Man found guilty of shooting 2 Baltimore County Police officers to be sentenced Friday
Todd Karpovich
The Baltimore Sun
March 18, 2025
A man accused of shooting two Baltimore County Police officers in 2023 is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in Circuit Court.
The state has not yet recommended a sentence, according to Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger.
In September, a jury found David 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.
The maximum sentence for attempted first-degree murder 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 county grand jury indicted Linthicum, 26, on 27 counts in 2023, but prosecutors dismissed some of those charges the during trial.
Shellenberger had no further comment.
Linthicum was defended by 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. The public defender’s office declined to comment.
On Feb. 8, 2023, Linthicum’s father called 911 to report that his son was armed and suicidal at their Cockeysville home. Linthicum later fired at police through a wall, striking officer Barry Jordan, according to police.
Linthicum left the Powers Avenue home that afternoon as authorities locked down local schools and warned neighbors to stay 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 his injuries prevented him from returning to full duty more than a year and a half after the shooting. Police said Linthicum stole Chih’s police Dodge Ram truck and fled into Harford County, where he was arrested eventually without injury.
Linthicum had a preliminary sentencing hearing Monday, less than a week after a Baltimore County Police officer was shot in Catonsville. The suspect in that case faces multiple charges, including two counts of attempted first-degree murder, for what police believe was a premeditated shooting outside of the Wilkens police precinct near the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus.