Barber Shop Police Shooting Under Investigation

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A fatal shooting involving a Baltimore Police Department sergeant at a barber shop is under investigation as the sergeant allegedly shot an armed man six times after the suspect fatally shot the barber shop owner.

Shortly after 3 p.m. on Nov. 13, police said, the off-duty sergeant was getting a haircut at Blady Style Barber Shop on the 5700 block of O’Donnell Street when a man, later identified as 38-year-old Carlos David Ortega, walked in and shot the owner, Rafael Blady Jeffers, several times.

According to police, Ortega shot Jeffers and then told the sergeant, who was sitting in a barber shop chair, to get out of his way. Ortega continued to move toward Jeffers when the sergeant shot Ortega six times with an off-duty Glock 27.

The sergeant instructed a barber shop employee to call 911 as he secured the front door until additional officers arrived. There were two witnesses to the shooting, a news release states.

Police said medics attempted to revive both Jeffers and Ortega, both of whom were taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital where they later died.

The Baltimore Police Department and the Maryland Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division is investigating the incident, and police said the scene was “secured and all proper notifications were made.” The off-duty sergeant, a seven-year veteran with the police department, was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting.

Only a month prior on Oct. 1 did the Maryland General Assembly pass a law that mandates the Office of the Attorney General to investigate all police-involved fatalities in Maryland.