Police: Man Brought Gun to Md. Station to Test Security

Baltimore police officers disarmed a man who told them he was ordered by a violent prison gang to smuggle a loaded gun into a city police station Tuesday, the city's police commissioner said.

Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said 29-year-old Jason Armstrong walked into the Northeastern District substation about 8 a.m. smelling strongly of marijuana. He said officers noted Armstrong's strange behavior and searched him, finding marijuana, cocaine and a .22 caliber handgun with a round in the chamber.

When officers interviewed Armstrong, Batts said, he told them he had been ordered by the Black Guerilla Family gang to smuggle the contraband into the station house to test the department's security.

"We're really lucky,'' Batts said Tuesday. "For a person walking into a police station with a gun fully loaded didn't end up in a terrible situation.''

"The suspect entered the station on orders from the Black Guerrilla Family to probe the security of the police station and its facilities,'' Batts said. "In light of incidents that have occurred in other cities let me say again: An organized gang in the city of Baltimore sent an armed suspect into our building to test our security. That is alarming to us.''

Batts said that while Armstrong never brandished or even displayed the weapon it became clear while questioning him that the gang's purpose was "to take action within the institution.''

Officers said late Tuesday that Armstrong had been charged with weapons and narcotics offenses.

Police departments nationwide, including the Baltimore City Police Department, have been on alert since late December, when the FBI issued a memo warning departments of potential threats against police officers. In the memo, authorities warned that they received information that members of the Black Guerilla Family were posting threats against "white cops'' and planning to target them in order to ``send a message.''

Last Dec. 20, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley shot his former girlfriend in her Baltimore County apartment complex before traveling to New York and killing two police officers before killing himself.

Two more New York police officers were wounded in a shootout Monday while responding to a report of an armed holdup of a Bronx grocery store.

Batts on Tuesday did not comment on the FBI memo, saying only that the department is "always concerned ... but won't sit on my heels and let it happen again.''

In August, an attempted murder suspect fatally shot himself inside of the Southwestern District police station, prompting an investigation.