A Montgomery County Police officer who fatally shot a man he thought had a knife will not be charged in the incident, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a news release Tuesday.
Just before 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, Montgomery County police officers were called to the 3400 block of Janet Road in Wheaton for a report of an assault in progress.
When they arrived, police encountered a group of people who were pointing to the man, who was observed by officers to be “holding a silver oblong object in his right hand,” the attorney general’s office said in the release.
The man, identified later as Melvin Omar Chavez-Paz, was ordered by police to “drop the knife” but did not respond to shouted commands to do so, according to the attorney general’s Independent Investigations Division, which probes fatal encounters with police.
Montgomery County Police Corp. Cody Hobbs fatally shot Chavez-Paz after he did not comply and instead crossed the street and approached nearby civilians, IID said.
A police investigation at the scene recovered a grill fork near Chavez-Paz, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The attorney general’s office said the investigation ended May 20 and Brown decided no charges would be filed in the case.
“After completing its investigation and evaluating all the available evidence, the Office of the Attorney General has determined that Corporal Hobbs did not commit a crime under Maryland law,” the news release said.
A copy of the IID investigation can be found at marylandattorneygeneral.gov.
According to the IID’s website, the division last year launched 22 investigations involving interactions that include fatal shootings, fatal vehicle pursuits and in-custody deaths. Of those, 14 cases have closed with the attorney general declining to charge officers. Seven cases remain under investigation.
In the other recorded case from 2024, Brown indicted an Anne Arundel County police officer on multiple charges following a fatal vehicle crash that killed a 21-year-old. That indictment was handed down last month.
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