Baltimore Police officer suspended, faces felony for domestic violence allegations

BALTIMORE — A Baltimore Police officer was stripped of his police powers after he was arrested last week on charges including first-degree assault.

Eli Winston, 29, is suspended without pay while he awaits trial on home detention, a Baltimore Police spokesperson said Wednesday. He was charged last week after police reviewed surveillance footage from cameras around downtown Baltimore showing Winston, who was carrying a gun, assaulting his girlfriend, charging papers say.

Police had initially responded at about 2 a.m. Oct. 23 to the intersection of East Lombard and South streets to investigate a vehicle crash, according to charging documents. Winston and his girlfriend were in the vehicle, and she told responding officers that she had been physically assaulted by her boyfriend earlier that night, police wrote.

Camera footage from the unit block of Commerce Street earlier in the night showed Winston’s girlfriend entering her vehicle and him attempting to enter it, though it appeared to be locked, police wrote. Winston then allegedly “removed an object from his waistband” and struck the vehicle with it. As the vehicle pulled out, Winston “extended his right arm, with the object in his hand” and lowered it as the vehicle fled, placing the object in his waistband, according to police.

Winston was later arrested with a handgun in his waistband, police wrote.

He was also seen on camera dropping a handgun later during a “physical altercation” with his girlfriend on the sidewalk, striking her with a closed fist before dropping the firearm and picking it up off the sidewalk, according to charging documents.

Winston was released on home detention following a bail review Thursday, according to court records. His attorney, Craig Kadish, has requested his client’s release to a substance abuse clinic in Eldersburg, court records say. That motion had not been ruled on as of Wednesday. Kadish did not immediately return a request for comment.

Winston is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Nov. 19.

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