TOWSON, Md. — A confrontation with police in April of this year captured on a cell phone camera.
“We ain’t got no ID to give you. We ain’t got no ID to give you,” a man tells officers outside the car.
“We have a right to speak,” adds a woman in the driver’s seat.
911 calls reporting a possible assault and a couple fighting brought police to the unit block of East Overlea Avenue not once but twice, and when officers approached Wanda Redd and James Como the second time, they ordered the couple to produce ID and to get out of their car to no avail.
“We’re about to be killed,” Redd says to the camera. “We’re having a family discussion. Me and my husband are talking and the police…Stop! You’re coming in my car! Stop! Look he’s hitting me! Now, he’s about to shoot me! (Smash!!!) Oh, my God. He’s about to kill us! He broke my window!”
The couple has now filed a $25 million lawsuit against the department for alleged mental and physical abuse.
“I felt like I was going to be another Sandra Bland like yanking me out of the car just hurting me,” Redd told us as she recalled the incident.
“We were at a family gathering basically on Belair Road, so we were just leaving from there and getting into our vehicle to go home,” added Como.
In charging documents, at least one witness claimed he saw Como dragging his wife across the lot by her hair and grabbing her by the throat.
But officers had already approached the couple once and had left, only to return again, confusing the couple as they sat in their car.
“It is, based on my experience, one of the most egregious acts and omissions by officers of the Baltimore County Police Department that I’ve ever experienced in almost 20 years of practicing law,” said the couple’s attorney, Governor Jackson III.
Both Como and Redd face misdemeanor charges of failure to obey a lawful order and disturbing the peace, while Como also has been charged with second degree assault.
Baltimore County Police issued a statement on the alleged assault and the $25 million lawsuit:
On April 8, 2021, Baltimore County officers responded to 911 calls for domestic assault. When officers arrived the first time, the couple denied an assault. Following a second call, officers returned to the scene and found the couple inside a vehicle. During the second call, officers made two arrests. Those arrests have been reviewed by the State’s Attorney’s Office and this incident remains under administrative review.
