Maryland AG investigations into police actions lead to few prosecutions

Todd Karpovich

The Baltimore Sun

September 29, 2025

Last week, the Independent Investigations Division within the Maryland Attorney General’s Office declined to pursue charges against Baltimore police in the May shooting death of a 26-year-old, armed man, as well as in another case involving Prince George’s County police, who shot and killed a 44-year-old man wielding a knife.

Also last week, an Anne Arundel County judge dismissed charges pursued by the IID against two officers involved in a high speed, fatal crash, because of flaws in their case. It was the first prosecution the IID had brought.

Four years after its establishment, the Independent Investigations Division under the Maryland attorney general’s office has recommended relatively few prosecutions against officers, raising questions from one lawmaker about its relevance.

“The fact that charges have not been filed in the overwhelming majority of cases demonstrates what many of us have long known: There is not widespread police misconduct in Maryland,” Del. Ryan Nawrocki, a Republican representing Baltimore County, said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun.

“My concern is that this law [creating the IID] raised public expectations for outcomes that were not based in reality and were based entirely on the political pressure of extremist members of radical left-wing groups. While transparency is beneficial, creating a parallel process that implies wrongdoing where none exists ultimately undermines trust in both law enforcement and the justice system.”

Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Will Smith, who sponsored the legislation, and House sponsors Sarah Wolek, Marc Korman and Teresa Woorman, did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Officers … did not break the law’

Created by sweeping police reform legislation in 2021, the IID investigates whenever someone dies — or is seriously hurt and likely to die — because of an encounter with law enforcement in Maryland. This can include shootings, in-custody deaths, vehicle collisions and use of force by police.

For the first two years of its existence, the IID investigated and provided reports on such incidents to local state’s attorneys, who chose whether to file charges. In October 2023, the IID gained prosecutorial authority through legislative expansion, and can now try cases on its own.

Attorney General Anthony G. Brown’s office leads all the IID investigations, which can take months to be resolved, with a staff of about 20.

Of 80 cases that have been investigated since October 2021, one was prosecuted by a local state’s attorney, two were indicted by the Attorney General — including the case tossed out of court last week — and 69 were concluded without charges. The remaining eight cases were opened this year and are still under investigation.

Brown’s office says investigators are making a meaningful impact in holding police accountable, and most officers are not guilty of doing anything wrong.

“In nearly all our investigations, we found that officers’ actions did not break the law, and when they did, we took action,” OAG spokesperson Jennifer Donelan said.

“[The] decision on whether to pursue a prosecution is based on the facts and circumstances we uncover in our investigations, many of which reveal complicated facts, and all of which resulted in the tragic outcome of a person’s death, forever altering the lives of those who loved them, as well as the police officers who were with them in their final moments.”

Beyond prosecutions, the IID’s reports provide critical data for agencies and policymakers to identify patterns and prevent future tragedies, according to the OAG.

“This commitment to transparent reporting ensures that the community remains informed and that the IID is held accountable for its work,” Donelan said.

A broader pattern

Nationally, between 900 and 1,300 people are fatally shot by police each year, according to Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. His research shows that only seven to 22 officers are charged annually, about 2% of cases.

“It is impossible to get quantitative data on non-charging decisions by prosecutors,” Stinson wrote in an email. “These cases, we assume that in the roughly 98% of cases where officers aren’t arrested, that investigators and/or prosecutors have decided that the officer was legally justified in using deadly force.”

Lt. Ray Rice, vice president of the Ethical Society of Police, agreed that many fatal encounters fall within legal authority. In Maryland, he noted, more than half the cases involved armed suspects, others were motorists struck by fleeing vehicles, and some were accidents during mental health crises or crossfire incidents.

“A broader challenge for law enforcement agencies is ensuring that the individuals entrusted with this authority are properly vetted and trained,” Rice wrote in an email. “If an officer’s decisions are influenced by implicit bias or poor judgment, the result may be a use of force that is legally defensible but widely seen as unacceptable by the public.”

Indictments

Last December, Anne Arundel County Corporals Eddie Vasquez and Kieran Christopher Schnell became the first officers charged by the IID under its expanded power, after they drove at speeds over 100 mph before a car they were chasing crashed, killing a passenger, officials said. The officers allegedly misled supervisors afterward.

But Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Stacy McCormack dismissed the case Wednesday, ruling that the attorney general’s office lacked protocols to prevent attorneys from accessing the officers’ compelled statements.

Another Anne Arundel officer, Alexander Rodriguez, was charged April 2 in connection with a 2024 pursuit in which motorcyclist Joshua VanderZiel, 21, was killed in Howard County. Prosecutors say Rodriguez failed to alert his colleagues or his chain of command as he crossed jurisdictions at speeds of nearly 100 mph. His trial is scheduled for January.

Also on Wednesday, Brown announced no charges against Prince George’s County officers who fatally shot Aevon Bucknor Jr. on April 20. Police said Bucknor, who had a history of domestic violence, refused to drop a knife and advanced on officers before being shot.

“Mr. Bucknor was wanted for a violent crime, a stabbing and setting a building on fire, and was approaching the officer while not following police commands,” Kevin Angelo Brown, a criminologist at Arkansas State University, wrote in an email. “The officer assisted in medical aid after the shooting and stopped firing once the suspect was moving away and out of the threat zone, which likely contributed to the officer not being charged for the killing.”

Pushback from critics

Some prosecutors pushed back at the expansion of the IID’s powers in 2023, including Howard County State’s Attorney Richard Gibson, who testified against the bill. He declined to further comment for this article.

But some who were in support of IID involvement are concerned it doesn’t leave enough room for community buy-in.

Dayvon Love, a policy advocate with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, wrote in a text to The Baltimore Sun that he “understands the underlying theory” that the Attorney General’s Office has “less day-to-day interaction” with local police and, as such, is less inclined to “have a professional and personal interest” in protecting officers from being held accountable.

“However, in an instance where there is an AG that is politically beholden to law enforcement, it inhibits the ability for local residents to elect a prosecutor that will prosecute officers regardless of their proximity to [the Baltimore Police Department],” Love wrote.

“I don’t think we have this problem in the case of the current AG, but it is an important consideration.”