Baltimore police officer Maxwell Dundore and sergeant Brendan O’Leary have been formally charged after the officer assaulted a teenager and threatened to choke and kill him during an arrest.
According to The Baltimore Sun, the 17-year-old teen had a warrant for his arrest out in connection with a stolen vehicle and was “slammed” to the ground by Dundore, who then wrapped his left arm around him and threatened to choke the child to death while trying to handcuff him.
According to the prosecutor’s statement, the teen had attempted to flee on foot.
After being chased down, he was thrown face down onto the concrete.
As Dundore held the teen’s throat, the boy was fighting to breathe.
“Officer Dundore then stated … ‘I will choke you. I will kill you,’ before releasing his hands,” according to prosecutors.
“I swear to God, I’ll choke you out if you don’t stop,” Dundore continued saying while other officers arrived and detained the teenager.
The crooked cop later told another officer, “I did slam him.”
O’Leary, Dundore’s supervisor and responsible for completing a “use of force report” from the incident, was charged after fabricating a false statement and exemplifying misconduct in office.
Prosecutors stated that his report had considerable discrepancies.
“The report submitted by Sergeant O’Leary minimized the severity of Officer Dundore’s actions, materially distorted the nature of the incident to justify unlawful police conduct, and mislead investigators into concluding that the actions of Officer Dundore were within BPD policy,” prosecutors said.
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Dundore and O’Leary were both indicted on Thursday.
Dundore has been charged with second-degree assault and misconduct in office and up to 10 years in prison.
Both officers have been suspended with pay and assigned to administrative work while the investigation is wrapped up.
