Weeks after Baltimore courthouse shooting, MD legal leaders reflect on security

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Weeks after a man entered the Baltimore City Eastside District Court with a gun and fatally shot himself, Maryland’s legal leaders are continuing to pursue ways to increase courthouse and judicial safety in the state.

The Task Force to Ensure the Safety of Judicial Facilities — an initiative implemented in response to the murder of Judge Andrew Wilkinson in October 2023 — has set deadlines for courtrooms across the state to provide adequate numbers of security personnel in courthouses and courtrooms and recommended to the legislature the need for secure parking and secure public spaces in court facilities.

By 2027, the task force’s goal is for each courtroom in Maryland to have at least one security officer present for courtrooms hearing criminal, family and juvenile matters. By 2029, all courtrooms, no matter the case type, should have at least one security officer present.

Raphael Santini, president of the Maryland State Bar Association, said the rollout of security officers will be slow because of the state’s economic situation, but highlighted the importance of having sufficient security officers present in courtrooms.

“This concept of security is not only with respect to the judiciary, but it’s also for the public and obviously the attorneys involved because it’s really a matter of the rule of law,” Santini said in a phone call after last month’s Baltimore courthouse shooting. “We need to have spaces that everybody feels safe in and secure because without that, we cannot continue to have a civilized society.”

Santini said the shooting was a dangerous situation “handled very well.”

RELATED: Everything you need to know about Judge Andrew Wilkinson

On Jan. 31, a man who appeared to be suffering from a “behavioral crisis” walked into the entrance of the Baltimore Eastside District Court and shot himself in the head after authorities tried to interact with him before a security area. The man later died from his injuries.

Jason DeLoach, former president of the MSBA and an orphans’ court judge in Prince George’s County, said courthouse staff and Maryland leaders need to find ways to prevent such incidents in the future, but noted the Baltimore Eastside District Court shooting is a matter “hard to control” because of the difficulty of setting up a secure perimeter outside the courthouse.

“We have to make sure that we’re doing all we can to protect the people who are coming in and out of that courthouse — not just the judges, not just the attorneys, not just the staff, but why we have the courthouse [is] for the residents, the people of the state of Maryland, and they should be satisfied that the security is there to protect them and the people that they’re bringing in with them,” DeLoach said in a phone interview.

According to DeLoach, efforts to ensure and improve courthouse security thus far have been focused on “what happens inside the courthouse.”

A spokesperson for the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office, which provides security in Baltimore courthouses, did not immediately respond to The Daily Record’s request for comment.

In a December 2024 report by the task force, coming into compliance with minimum standards for secure parking and public spaces is estimated to reach into the tens of millions of dollars. The task force estimates the cost of implementing secure parking in courthouses across Maryland to be more than $15 million, and the cost of providing secure public spaces to be more than $41 million.

A spokesperson for the Maryland Judiciary said in an email that “ensuring the safety of court employees and individuals who visit our courthouses is a top priority,” but did not comment further.

Also on Maryland legal leaders’ minds is the nature of contested judicial elections for circuit court judges, which Santini said presents another security issue.

“It’s a security issue because the judge has to go out to public gatherings to campaign, and that puts the judge at risk because judges do not have security personnel walking around with them when they go to campaign functions or when they go door-to-door,” Santini said, adding that the MSBA supports eliminating contested judicial elections and shifting them to a retention election format.

“It’s very important to make sure that people feel comfortable when they come into a court of law,” DeLoach said. “It’s already hard enough for them to make a case, to pay the money, to take the time out to come to court to do what they think is right, but to have something hanging over their head like they may get attacked — that is going to have a chilling effect on people coming into the courthouse and getting things done that they think needs to get done. We’re working on that.”