A suspected 18-year-old drug dealer fatally shot by a Baltimore cop when he pointed a gun at the officer had just been set free on bond the day before.
Bodycam footage released by police shows the officer shooting Curtis Deal in the middle of a West Baltimore street on Tuesday after Deal raised a silver handgun toward him.
Prosecutors had requested to keep Deal locked up until trial, but he was let go on $250,000 bond by a judge. The teen had been arrested three times this year, most recently on Feb. 2 when he was caught with a gun, heroin and $6,000 in cash. He was also a person of interest in a 2016 murder, authorities said.
“Curtis Deal should be alive,” Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said, “behind bars, but alive.”
Davis criticized the judge’s decision, telling the Baltimore Sun the department “could very well be planning a police funeral right now.”
“It shows dysfunction, I believe, in our criminal justice system,” Mayor Catherine Pugh told the newspaper. “People who have those many gun charges probably should not be on our streets.”
Deal was also arrested on Jan. 4 for handgun possession, and on Jan. 30 for heroin possession.
State’s Attorney David Chiu argued in court that Deal is “an active participant in a large-scale sale of drugs,” according to the Baltimore Sun.
Chiu, who said that Deal was already out on $100,000 bail from a previous bust, told the judge that the state believes “he poses a continuing and extreme risk to public safety,” according to the Sun.
Deal’s lawyer Jerome Bivens told the judge that his client was a senior in high school and planned “to go into the Army and to study engineering,” the newspaper reported.
Judge Nicole Taylor decided to grant bond, but gave Deal specific terms when she released him, according to the Sun.
“You’re not going out at night, you’re not going to get food, you’re not going to meet your girlfriend. You’re in your house,” she told him, according to the newspaper.
“I’m giving you an opportunity to go to school and not be in jail pending this trial. The curfew is 1 p.m., 7 days a week,” Judge Taylor added.
Deal said he understood, according to the newspaper.
“Best of luck to you, Mr. Deal,” Judge Taylor said, according to the Sun.
The following afternoon, Officer David Kincaid spotted a car “driving erratically” in a high-crime zone, and decided to follow it, police said. Kincaid, a five-year veteran, chose to chase Deal after he jumped out of the car because he recognized the man and saw a gun in his hand. Deal had fled from officers prior to his previous arrests.
“They knew him. Curtis Deal is a drug dealer. Curtis Deal carries guns. Curtis Deal is a menace, and Curtis Deal is known to law enforcement,” Davis said. “I expect people to chase people who bail out of cars with guns.”
Kincaid gave verbal commands to Deal prior to firing, but the bodycam did not record sound, according to police spokesman T.J. Smith.
Kincaid fired seven shots, and Deal was struck four times, according to Davis.
It’s the first police shooting in Baltimore this year. The city has seen 42 homicides in 40 days.
With News Wire Services
