A man tried to evade arrest by hiding from Baltimore police inside the crawl space above the ceiling of a vacant house on Monday.
Police had been looking for Justin Lewis, 29, after he was caught trying to steal merchandise from the Dollar General in the 2500 block of Greenmount Avenue earlier that morning, according to authorities.
The officer who was assigned to investigate the theft had approached Lewis and ordered him to remove the merchandise from his clothing. Court records describe how Lewis complied with the officer’s directive. He pulled three bottles of Lysol out of his pants and dropped the case of soap that he had hidden in his jacket.
Lewis then attempted to leave the store. That’s when the officer instructed Lewis to stand off to the side and provide his name and date of birth, according to authorities.
Charging documents state that Lewis grew nervous and begged the officer not to arrest him. Lewis “believed he had warrants and did not want to provide his identity,” Baltimore Police Department spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said in an email on Tuesday.
When the officer attempted to put Lewis in handcuffs, he ran away. The officer tried to catch up with Lewis but lost him as he ran through the streets of a nearby neighborhood, according to the charging documents.
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Additional officers met up at the Dollar General where the primary officer briefed them on what happened. Afterward, the officer drove off. It was then that he spotted Lewis from his patrol car.
By that point, Lewis had reportedly ditched the black jacket he had been wearing when he was attempted to steal from the Dollar General, court records state.
Investigators said that Lewis had a disfigured right hand, and that it caught his attention while he was driving. The officer made a U-turn in his vehicle and made an attempt to approach Lewis, which prompted him to run again.
The officer described in the charging documents how Lewis was seen climb through the back window of a fire-damaged vacant house in the 500 block of East 26th Street.
Police searched the house for Lewis. Eventually, they noticed “movement coming from the crawl space in the ceiling, along with insulation padding shifting,” according to the charging documents.
“We gave verbal commands for Mr. Lewis to come down, but he did not respond and continued moving within the crawl space,” court records state. “Assistance from the Baltimore City Fire Department was requested for a ladder; however, they declined due to the risk of potential collapse of the vacant building. After being informed of the potential risks and safety concerns regarding officer safety, such as not knowing if Mr. Lewis was armed, [an officer] deployed OC spray in the area of the crawl space.”
Police issued additional commands to Lewis, which he allegedly ignored. Investigators said this prompted a second officer to discharge pepper spray into the ceiling space.
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Court records state that one of the officers began using a crowbar to pull down parts of the sheetrock ceiling after waiting to see if the pepper spray would motivate Lewis to exit the crawl space.
“Eventually, Mr. Lewis came forward and descended from the crawl space. Once he was down, Mr. Lewis was placed in handcuffs and escorted to” an ambulance to receive medical attention for the burning sensations that the pepper spray caused him to experience, according to the charging documents. That ambulance took Lewis to Mercy Hospital.
After he was released from the hospital, Lewis was taken to the Baltimore Central Booking & Intake Center where he was charged with theft of less than $100 and resisting arrest.
Police later learned Lewis had a bench warrant for multiples charges out of another jurisdiction, Eldridge said.
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