Calvert County, MD – A driver pulled a handgun on a deputy during a traffic stop on June 18 in Calvert County (video below).
The Calvert County Sheriff’s Office released bodycam video on Friday from the incident that showed a routine traffic stop that quickly became a potentially deadly incident.
“This video is a representation of an event that has the potential to happen at any time to a deputy while working,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post on the department’s official page on June 22.
When the video began, it showed the officer examining drug paraphernalia that was being handed to him by the vehicle’s driver through the passenger-side window.
“Got a lot of stuff in there, huh?” the officer asked.
“He’s a pothead, for sure,” the driver responded.
“Alright, go ahead and step out for me,” the officer instructed the man, and then he walked around the vehicle to the driver’s side.
“Nothing in your pockets, or anything like that?” the officer asked as the driver opened his door and began to get out of the vehicle.
In the video, the driver used only his left hand to push his door open, then hopped out and turned quickly, concealing his hands.
“Ah, I’m sorry,” the driver said, putting both hands behind his back.
In the video, there was an audible click as the driver chambered a round in his weapon, still held behind his back.
“What do you got behind your back?” the officer asked.
“I’m sorry,” the driver said again.
At that point, the video showed that the officer drew his own weapon.
“Drop your hands,” he ordered the driver.
In the video, the driver removed his hands from behind his back, and he can clearly be seen holding a pistol in his right hand, pointing it at the ground.
“Put it on the ground! Put it on the ground! Put it on the ground now!” the officer yelled at the driver as he backed away from the threat.
In the video, the man slowly went to the ground, but he never let go of the 9 mm handgun he kept pointed in the officer’s direction.
As the man lay in a prone position, facing the officer, with a pistol in his right hand, the officer continued to order him to drop the weapon.
The video showed the officer backing away from the man, and taking cover behind a patrol car.
Although details of the driver can no longer be seen in the video at that point, the officer can be heard telling dispatch that the man is holding the gun to his own head.
Additional deputies arrived to back up the first officer, and created a perimeter around the scene, according to the sheriff’s department statement.
The sheriff’s office said that deputies negotiated with the driver and in the end, he was “peacefully apprehended.”
The post on the Facebook page said that Calvert County sheriff’s deputies have been trained to handle that sort of situation, and that it was the training and “the desire to preserve life” that brought the potentially deadly incident to a successful resolution.
“I am proud of the deputies in this situation. They showed great restraint and relied on their training to resolve the situation,” Calver County Sheriff Mike Evans said.
The sheriff’s office said that charges were still pending in the case. They have not released the name of the driver or the deputy who apprehended him.
Watch how quickly a traffic stop can turn into a deadly incident in the video below:
