B4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAy, MARCH 3 , 2020
BY TOM JACKMANA Baltimore County police offi-
cer who shot and killed an un-
armed motorist in November was
quickly cleared by prosecutors
and returned to duty three weeks
later, county police disclosed last
week, much to the surprise of the
dead man’s mother, who had
called 911 seeking help for her
son.
The woman told police that her
son, Eric J. Sopp, 48, was drunk
and suicidal. When two officers
pulled Sopp over on Interstate 83,
at l east one immediately drew his
gun and both shouted commands
at Sopp, a video released Thurs-
day shows. A top policing expert
who is attempting to reduce “sui-
cide by cop” nationwide said the
incident showed that some police
departments haven’t provided
proper training on how to handle
a person in mental crisis.
on Nov. 26, after an apparent
day of drinking, Sopp smashed
items in his house and put an ice
pick to his throat before dropping
it, his mother, Catherine Sopp,
told police. When the man finally
obtained his car keys from his
mother and left their house in
Parkton, md., just west of I-83,
the woman called 911. Her entire
call was released Thursday, along
with an edited body-camera vid-
eo of the moments leading up to
the shooting.
“I want to report that my son
just left the house, and he’s out
there driving drunk,” Sopp’s
mother told the call taker. “A nd
I’m afraid, and he threatened to
commit suicide.” She said that
her son had put an ice pick to his
neck, but it was now “in the
drawer.... He plans on either
drinking himself to death or go-
ing out and getting some drugs
and taking himself off that way.”
The call taker asked, “Does
anyone need medical attention?”
“He does,” Sopp’s mother said.
minutes later, officers spotted
Sopp’s red To yota Camry headed
south on I-83. one of the officers,
whose last name is Page — c ounty
police agreed with the police
union not to release the officer’s
first name — came up behind
Sopp and signaled for him to pull
over. Sopp did so, quickly. Page
approached the car from the
right side and had his gun drawn.
Another officer also approached
the car and can be heard shouting
commands at Sopp. Police, citing
an ongoing internal investiga-
tion, did not release the name of
the second officer or disclose
whether his gun was drawn at t he
time.The encounter lasted about a
minute. Page repeatedly told
Sopp to show his hands and put
his hands on the dash and the
vehicle in park. In the video, the
officer can be heard telling the
dispatcher that Sopp put his car
in park. The video also shows that
Sopp did not turn off the engine.
It cannot be seen in the video
where he placed his hands. Then,
Sopp is heard saying, “I’m going
out.”
Both officers yelled “Don’t get
out of the car!” As Sopp emerged
from the Camry, the video shows
Page firing eight shots, four as
Sopp is turned away and falling.
The other officer is not shown
firing any shots. Sopp did not
have a weapon on him. Police
would not say whether there was
a weapon in the car. B oth Sopp
and Page are white.
Police would not say why Page
approached the car with his gun
drawn. “That is part of the inter-
nal investigation,” s aid Sgt. Vickie
Warehime, a county police
spokeswoman. “That is one of the
aspects they will look at.” She
noted that dispatchers had men-
tioned an ice pick, and when Page
asked for more detail, he was
told, “No indication he actually
took it with him,” rather than the
mother’s statement that Sopp didnot have the ice pick.
The county homicide unit in-
vestigated the shooting and
turned its findings over to State’s
Attorney Scott Shellenberger. on
Dec. 16, three weeks after the
shooting, Deputy State’s Attorney
robin S. Coffin issued a ruling
that the “shooting of Eric Sopp
was tragic, but justified under
these circumstances.” She said
that Sopp’s “erratic behavior, his
charge out of the car and know-
ing that the suspect was suicidal
placed officer Page in a highly
dangerous situation.”
Shellenberger declined to com-
ment about the video friday. He
said his office moved quickly on
its ruling because “we take these
cases very seriously. We think
that the police officer, the unfor-
tunate family of the victim and
the public have a right to a quick
response of our legal analysis.”
Page, a 21-year veteran, was
authorized to return to duty the
day after the ruling, Dec. 17,
Warehime said. He is assigned to
the Cockeysville precinct and had
no prior shooting incidents, po-
lice said. W arehime said the video
was released Thursday in re-
sponse to media requests and
because the department had just
issued its policy on releasing
body-camera video, which iswithin 30 days of an incident.
Sopp’s mother has hired attor-
neys who are investigating the
case and disputing the prosecu-
tors’ findings. “Eric Sopp was
unarmed, suicidal and in need of
help,” said Chelsea J. Crawford,
one of the lawyers. “mr. Sopp was
not driving erratically before he
was pulled over; he promptly
pulled to the side of the road
when officer Page turned on his
flashing lights; obeyed the offi-
cer’s command to put his car in
park; and announced that he was
getting out of his car before he
opened the door. Ye t, the officer
had his gun drawn and finger on
the trigger the moment he got out
of his squad car.”
Coffin’s letter clearing the offi-
cer said that Page’s body-camera
footage showed Sopp’s car “weav-
ing in the lanes,” which is not
shown in the video released by
the police. Warehime said there
was more footage from Page’s
camera that was not released.
Coffin said, “Sopp refuses all
commands; to place the car in
park, to place his hand on the
dash and to stay in the car.”
Crawford said the video re-
leased by police “contradicts
many o f the findings of the State’s
Attorney’s office, which issued a
quick, misleading and erroneousletter exonerating the officer last
fall. Police officers should protect
and serve, not escalate and exe-
cute.”
Last fall, the Police Executive
research forum launched a pro-
gram to reduce suicide-by-cop
incidents, estimating that of
1,000 annual fatal police shoot-
ings, about 100 involve people
seeking to be killed by police. The
program calls on officers to be
trained not to aim weapons at
people in mental crisis, to com-
municate without shouting, and
to maintain a safe distance from
the subject.
“This was a crisis situation,”
said Chuck Wexler, the forum’s
executive director, after watching
the video, “and police officers
really aren’t t rained to deal with a
crisis situation.... This officer
was doing as he was trained to do.
most officers in this country are
not trained to deal with a poten-
tial suicide-by-cop situation. This
is what you had. And unfortu-
nately, the results are tragic.”
Catherine Sopp said in a state-
ment: “I never imagined that
when I called 911 to protect my
son and others from him driving
drunk, it would cost him his life.
There was no reason for the
officer to shoot and kill him.”
[email protected]MARYLAND
Officer cleared in killing of man whose mother had flagged him as suicidal
pound. The apartments were
cleaned every day by crews wear-
ing hazmat suits. The evacuees
were told not to socialize with
others who were being quaran-
tined.
“It is incarceration, but it’s in-
carceration where the staff is nice
and supportive and friendly,”
Lowe said. “It’s prison where you
forsake your freedom for the sake
of public health. Psychologically, I
felt that way. I felt the freedom
that I lacked.”
on feb. 20, having met the
quarantine requirements, Lowe,
Xiaoli and their daughter were
taken to the airport, where they
boarded a flight to BWI. freedom.
“A friend picked us up at the
airport, and within an hour, we
were sleeping in our own beds for
the first time in nearly two
months,” Lowe wrote in his essay.
“With our CDC quarantine r elease
forms in hand, life can return to
normal now. We k now t hat we can
count ourselves among the fortu-
nate ones.”
The relief he felt when he wrote
that isn’t there any more, Lowe
says.
Weiya was welcomed back to
her k indergarten, which h ad b een
fully apprised of the family’s tra-
vails and its clearance by the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Pre-
vention. Xiaoli returned to her
graduate program, where she, too,
was well received. Lowe remains
on sabbatical and is in contact
with family, friends and col-
leagues, who he says have been
“super supportive.”
But the ordeal will not soon be
forgotten. Xiaoli is still worried
about her family in Shiyan. She
talks with them twice a day. And
now t he family finds itself anxious
again as the coronavirus begins to
make its presence felt on Ameri-
ca’s shores.
“It’s almost like we’re back
where we were in mid-January in
China, but now we’re here,” Lowe
said. “We’re making preparations.
We feel a little more like we know
what to expect.”
[email protected]rushing to the bathroom because
of coronavirus but instead be-
cause I had merely overdosed on
sugar,” L owe w rote.
When the plane landed at Trav-
is Air force Base in fairview, Ca-
lif., there was “a great sense of
relief,” h e said.
There, the passengers went
through a health screening, and
Lowe later learned that four of his
fellow passengers were hospital-
ized after showing symptoms of
coronavirus. The family was back
in America, but home would have
to wait. They were put on a plane
to Lackland Air force Base near
San A ntonio.
At Lackland, t hey and the other
evacuees were quarantined in
small apartments on the base for
two weeks. They were fed and
treated well. To ys were provided
for the children. But there was a
perimeter fence they weren’t al-
lowed to cross. And armed guards
stood sentry around the com-on the plane. They would have to
wait two more d ays. Those last two
days, Lowe wrote, “we waited and
hoped and fretted about all the
things that might yet go w rong.”
on feb. 6, the family again trav-
eled to the Wuhan airport, arriv-
ing at 7:30 p.m. for the flight
home. It would be 10 more hours
before they boarded and 2^1 / 2 hours
more before the hulking cargo
plane with about 250 onboard
took off for their return to the
United States.
U.S. personnel on the plane
wore biohazard suits and spoke
through megaphones. Port-a-pot-
ties served as restrooms. Boxed
lunches containing ham and cole-
slaw sandwiches were on each
seat.
on the long flight to California,
Lowe and his daughter gorged on
candy bars, s odas, chips and cook-
ies.
“I i magined having t o explain to
the doctors on board that I wasn’tcity before the quarantine went
into effect on Jan. 23,” L owe wrote
in his journal entry. “Now all of
China and the rest of the world
trembles, waiting to see just how
far and wide those departed seeds
will carry the virus as they scatter
in the wind.”
The family had planned to re-
turn to Baltimore from Shanghai
on Jan. 29, but the new travel
restrictions quashed that hope.
Life in Shiyan had changed no-
ticeably. Now, e veryone was wear-
ing masks. Buses and trains
stopped running. Lowe’s father-
in-law had his temperature
checked whenever he went out to
get food for the family.
The swimming pool at the g ym
shut down. for exercise, Lowe
would take long walks through
the city’s empty streets. The only
vehicles moving about were an
occasional ambulance.
“Being in Hubei on those days
felt post-apocalyptic, like being
among the last humans on earth,”
he wrote i n his journal.
on Jan. 31, the U.S. Embassy
posted information a bout an evac-
uation flight for U.S. citizens from
Wuhan. With travel restrictions in
place, the family wondered how
they would make the trip to Wu-
han. They were also unsure
whether Xiaoli, a green-card hold-
er, would be eligible for the flight
or if it was for U.S. citizens only.
After working with local offi-
cials to get clearance to travel, the
family left feb. 4 to begin their
journey home. But after just a
short time on the road, they
learned a mistake had been made
and that Xiaoli didn’t have a seatvacy c oncerns.
“We made our trip to Wuhan at
precisely the wrong time,” Lowe
said. “The day we left Wuhan was
the day the coronavirus was first
identified. But there was almost
no publicity about it.”
In Wuhan, the couple heard
rumblings of a mysterious new
virus via a text message that Xiao-
li, 38, received f rom her sister. The
information was vague. Panic was
not yet i n the a ir.
Lowe recounted the text with a
rueful laugh. “The message was
that the virus didn’t seem like it
could be vectored from human to
human, so don’t worry about it,”
he said.
Two days later, the virus
claimed i ts first victim.
Still, life remained fairly nor-
mal for the first few days of the
family’s v isit to Shiyan, which, like
Wuhan, is in Hubei province.
There were joyful reunions and
boisterous meals. And much dot-
ing on Weiya.
But by mid-January, m ore news
began trickling out about the cor-
onavirus as it spread, mainly in
Wuhan.
“A s late as the 20th, it seemed to
be a Wuhan issue,” Lowe said.
“People in the rest of the province
weren’t wearing masks. No one
seemed that worried. But four
days later, the province was shut
down.”
A sense of dread grew with the
realization that so many residents
of Wuhan had left i n the preceding
days to travel for Lunar New Year
celebrations.
“The mayor of Wuhan estimat-
ed that 5 million people left theAt one point, they wondered
whether it would be months be-
fore they could l eave.
Lowe, 51, wrote about the fami-
ly’s experience in a first-person
account published on
m arylandreporter.com. In an in-
terview with The Washington
Post, he shared additional details
of the harrowing journey, which
included being cooped up in a
small apartment with little access
to reliable information, walking
the ghostly streets of a typically
frenetic city, being flown out of
Wuhan on a cargo plane s taffed by
personnel in full hazmat gear,
spending two weeks quarantined
at Lackland Air force Base in Te x-
as and, finally, returning to their
Baltimore C ounty home feb. 20.
As the coronavirus threat con-
tinues to spread around the w orld,
claiming new victims and upend-
ing financial markets, the family’s
escape from a region wracked by
the virus offers a glimpse into the
personal experience and worries
of those who have f aced the threat
close up. And it is a window into
the s teps taken to ensure the fami-
ly’s h ealth and that of the commu-
nity to which they have returned.
“The operative word of the en-
tire experience was anxiety,” L owe
said last week in a phone inter-
view.
The first hint of trouble arrived
a few days after the family landed
in Shanghai. They took a train to
see Xiaoli’s family in Shiyan, stop-
ping for a night in Wuhan to visit
friends. Xiaoli asked that her last
name not be used because of pri-
family from B1
Md. family’s saga: ‘We made our trip to Wuhan at precisely the wrong time’
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