Maryland AGs office issues report on police shooting in Harford County
Moments before fatally shooting John Raymond Fauver, a Harford County sheriff’s deputy yelled about what Fauver held in his hands: “It’s a cane! It’s a cane! It’s a cane!”
Those few seconds are at the center of a Maryland Attorney General’s Office report released Monday that describes officers’ standoff almost a year ago with Fauver, whose wife had told deputies he was experiencing a mental health crisis.
The report describes the evidence in the case — confirming that the same deputy who yelled about the cane also fired the fatal shots — and discusses potential charges against deputies, such as first- or second-degree murder or reckless endangerment, but stops short of making recommendations about whether any charges were appropriate.
Long before the report was issued, then-Harford County State’s Attorney Albert J. Peisinger Jr. decided against charging the deputies, a decision reaffirmed last week by the county’s current head prosecutor, Alison Healey, according to a release from the attorney general’s office.
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That Sgt. Bradford Sives yelled “It’s a cane!” moments before pulling the trigger suggests he “did not actually believe he was in immediate or imminent danger,” the report said. Other evidence, however — such as Fauver’s own statements that he had guns — could lead to the opposite conclusion, according to the report by the attorney general’s independent investigations division.
The case drew attention when then-Attorney General Brian E. Frosh successfully sued for a restraining order against Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler, who Frosh argued was impeding his office’s investigation by withholding the footage and other evidence. The suit was part of Frosh’s efforts to effect a police accountability measure lawmakers adopted that directs state officials, rather than local law enforcement agencies, to independently investigate such shootings.
A spokeswoman for Gahler declined to comment Monday on the state report. A lawyer for Fauver’s wife and estate says the report shows charges could and should have been filed.
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“Obviously [Fauver’s wife] is not going to get her husband back, but our goal is to see that change is made here,” said the lawyer, Cary Hansel. “What I see again and again are really cultural attitudes within police departments that … are really the root causes of inappropriate and unconstitutional uses of force like this.”
The report describes deputies forcing Fauver’s truck to a stop on April 23, 2022, after his wife had told them he was suicidal and likely armed, and Sives ordering him out at gunpoint.
Video shows Fauver rolling down his window, holding his cellphone and talking to someone. After a deputy opens his truck’s driver-side door, Fauver yells an expletive and quickly reverses, hitting a sheriff’s vehicle parked behind him.
When Fauver pulls forward, Sives fires at the truck’s tires, puncturing one, according to the state report.
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Later, after stopping his truck again, Fauver yells, “Get your snipers, boys! I’m ready. You ready?” according to the state report. Sives pleads with Fauver to show his hands and surrender.
A deputy on a video chat via phone with Fauver asked him if a long silver tube he’d reached for was a cane or rifle. Fauver replied, “AR-15, hollow point. Ready to go, brother,” according to the report.
During the standoff, Sives asks if any deputy has a “long distance, less-lethal” weapon or a pepper ball gun, video shows.
“It did not appear Sgt. Sives received any response to this inquiry, and no officers on scene indicated that they had long distance less-lethal weapons or can be seen on any camera footage with such weapons,” the report says.
At one point, Fauver reached into his vehicle and retrieved an object, and Sives yelled, “It’s a cane.” Several minutes later, dashboard video from a sheriff’s vehicle shows, Fauver reached into his truck again and emerged with a long object. He appeared to assume a shooting stance and pointed it at the deputies.
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Sives in those moments again repeats “It’s a cane!” but then fires his shotgun. In the intervening split second, a deputy farther away had taken aim and fired shots at Fauver. The other deputy’s shots missed, but Sives’ shotgun blasts killed Fauver, the state report says.
The report says Sives would have heard the other deputy firing and could have been “confused about the source of those gunshots.”
Investigations found two rifles and a shotgun in Fauver’s truck after the shooting, the report said.
Neither Sives nor the other deputy who fired, Cpl. Christopher Maddox, agreed to be interviewed by investigators, the report said. “Like the subjects of any criminal investigation, they have the right under the Fifth Amendment to remain silent.”
Hansel said he is planning a lawsuit on behalf of Fauver’s wife and will seek the officers’ testimony. “If [Sives] had any basis for the shooting, I would expect him to have articulated it publicly,” Hansel said.
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