Off Duty Police Officer Shoots and Kills Gunman While Getting a Haircut

Thank you for reading Baltimore Witness. Help us continue our mission into 2024.

On Nov. 13 an off-duty Baltimore Police Department officer shot and killed a suspected gunman who burst into a barber shop where he was getting his haircut on Saturday.

According to a press release, the unidentified cop was getting his hair cut at The Bladi Style, a barbershop in the Medford neighborhood of Southeastern Baltimore, when 38-year-old Carlos Ortega burst in with a gun on the 5700 block of Odonnell Street.

Ortega shot and killed 33-year-old Rafael Jeffers, the owner of the barber shop, before being shot dead by the off-duty police officer who was getting his haircut by another stylist.

Police could not identify Ortega’s motive but less than an hour earlier, the suspect killed 44-year-old Javier Villegas Cotto on the 4600 block of Eastern Avenue while injuring another, unnamed victim, in two separate attacks nearby.

Follow this case