15 year old kid killed two policeman inside Prince Georges County police station
articles.baltimoresun.com
Late one night, in the summer of 1978, somebody broke into a coin box at a Hyattsville-area apartment laundry room. Shortly afterward, Prince George's County police stopped Johnson and his older brother and brought them in for questioning.
Johnson claimed the arresting officer took him into a small room and began to beat him up. Fearing for his life, he said, he managed to pull the officer's service revolver out of his holster and shoot him in the abdomen. After that, Johnson said, he blanked out.
Johnson, who was then 15, was alone with the police officer in a small fingerprinting room, when suddenly and for no apparent reason he snatched the officer's service revolver and shot him. He then rampaged through the station, eventually killing a second officer before he was subdued.
Police charged the youth with the murders of Officer Albert M. Claggett IV, 26, who left behind a wife and two small boys, and Officer James B. Swart, 25, a bachelor. Both men were the sons of former police officers. Both men were highly regarded by their peers.
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Controversial parolee kills himself after bank robbery
Terrence G. Johnson was imprisoned for slaying of 2 policemen
articles.baltimoresun.com
February 28, 1997|By Robert A. Erlandson and Jay Apperson | Robert A. Erlandson and Jay Apperson,SUN STAFF News researcher Jean Packard and staff writers Candus Thomson, John Rivera, Peter Hermann, Melody Simmons and Ellen Gamerman contributed to this article.
Terrence G. Johnson, paroled amid controversy in 1995 after serving nearly 17 years in the slayings of two Prince George's County police officers, shot himself to death yesterday moments after robbing an Aberdeen bank with his brother, police said.
The shooting, which came as police closed in near the NationsBank branch at Beards Hill Plaza, shocked those who knew Johnson as a model former prisoner. And it brought tears at the University of the District of Columbia law school, where, until recently, he had been a second-year student.
But the violent end came as no surprise to some relatives of the officers slain years ago.
"I knew it was going to happen," said Blanche Claggett, mother of Officer Albert M. Claggett IV, whose gun Johnson used in the 1978 slayings. "You don't change the stripes."
She added: "We've lived through a nightmare through all these years. People asked me if I'd thought about whether Johnson could turn his life around and I said, 'No, I couldn't care less.' My son couldn't turn his life around and come back."
Police said the bank robbery began about 9: 30 a.m. yesterday when two armed men walked into the bank.
Klein's Supermarket Manager Chuck Cross was in the bank making a deposit, and was about to leave when the men, wearing brown trench coats and black knit caps, entered. One carried a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun and the other a knife with a 12-inch blade.
One man put a small box on the floor and said, "I've got a bomb here. If anyone calls the police or comes outside after us, we're going to blow the place up," Cross said. The men made profane demands for money, he said.
After tellers turned over an undetermined amount of money, the men ran from the bank, leaving the package on the counter, police said. Officers spotted two suspects running along Barnett Lane, a dead-end, one-lane road lined with homes, and stopped them.
Ron Cullum, 39, who was washing dishes in his nearby mobile home, heard shouting and ran outside to his screened porch. He saw an Aberdeen police officer leaving his car with his pistol drawn and shouting, "Halt!"
The two men continued to walk away from the officer, Cullum said. "It was like they was just taking a walk through the park, so to speak. It wasn't like they robbed a bank or nothing."
The officer repeated his command to halt, and one man stopped after walking about 10 more feet, Cullum said. The other kept walking, stopped about 150 feet from the officer and "pulled his own revolver out and shot himself," Cullum said.
The man left standing then shouted, "Please don't shoot me! Please don't shoot me!" As police officers closed in, he dropped to the ground, Cullum said. |
