The Baltimore City Police lieutenant who supervised officers who were involved in two recent fatal actions, one involving an innocent civilian, has been reassigned while his role in the actions of his officers is being scrutinized.
Lt. Parker Elliott was reassigned from the northeastern district to a different patrol division until the department completes an investigation of the events surrounding the deaths of four people—an innocent civilian on her way home from work and was unrelated to three men, all with arrest records, that officers from Elliott’s command were pursuing on July 18 and Sept. 24.
Police officials acknowledged Nov. 4. that Elliott has been reassigned. Police Sgt. Sarah Connolly, a department spokesman, declined to link the transfer to the incidents telling the AFRO that under Baltimore Police Department policy officials publicly “can’t get into personal issues as to what happened.”
“These incidents are still an open investigation and we can’t provide the 9-1-1 tapes,” the spokesperson for the department told the AFRO referring to the calls for police assistance during the episodes.
She said Elliott was the supervisor for police officer units involved in both incidents, however she could not confirm if Elliott was on duty at the time the fatalities occurred.
“As the commissioner has stated previously, we are going to take pause and look at what’s happening,” she said. “We are taking a greater look to see whether or not there is any systemic problem in relation to these incidents.”
According to police, Elliott did nothing wrong, but police insist they are “pausing to see exactly what happened” and to see if there is a greater issue.
Elliott has been with the BPD since January 1999 and based upon information released from the public affairs section, he has been the supervising official over two major incidents, with fatalities, within the past three months.
On Sept. 24, officers in Elliott’s unit pursued a car on a four-mile car chase that ended in a fiery crash that claimed the lives of three persons—Devell Johns and Terrell Young, the two men police were following, and Angel Chiwengo, an innocent citizen on her way home from work.
Two months earlier, officers under Elliott’s supervision conducted a traffic stop July 18 of a vehicle driven by Tyrone West in the 1300 block of Kitmore Rd. in Northeast Baltimore.
West, 44, died July 18 following a struggle with eight Baltimore police and a Morgan State police officer after a traffic stop in the 1300 block of Kitmore Rd. All of the Baltimore police officers have been placed on administrative leave. The cause of death of West has not yet been stated by the medical examiner’s office.
The officers under the supervision of Elliott are part of an operations units—small groups of officers—designed to respond instantly to specific crimes.
