Police-involved shootout inside a Baltimore grocery store results in $250,000 settlement
The chaotic gunfight made headlines in 2021, but resulted in only one serious injury. UPDATE: The officer who shot the store manager was never disciplined.
Above: Police cars surround the Compare Foods store on The Alameda following the January 2021 gunfight. (WBAL-TV)
Baltimore City will pay $250,000 to a grocery store manager who was wounded by police four years ago during a midday gun battle with an armed security guard inside a northeast supermarket.
The incident, which left panicked customers and employees screaming and crying and ducking for cover, occurred after the security guard – outraged over his paycheck – opened fire on two police officers summoned to the Compare Foods store at the Alameda Shopping Center on January 30, 2021.
While one officer ran back outside and called for backup, Officer Wesley Rosenberger returned fire inside the store before running through an open door and climbing to a second-floor office, where he encountered Luis Peralta Rodriquez, the store manager.
Mistaking him for the gunman, he shot him in the right arm with his Glock 22 handgun.
“That’s not him,” someone yelled out, according to bodycam footage that showed a chaotic scene playing out in the middle of a Saturday shopping day.
Remarkably, no one else was injured despite the 16 shots fired by Rosenberger and 15 by the security guard, who fled the building and escaped capture.
8/6 UPDATE: Three new facts about the shooting emerged from today’s BOE meeting:
• Rosenberger fired two shots at the store manager, the second missing its mark.
• A pregnant employee was in the office where the two bullets were fired.
• No disciplinary action was taken against Rosenberger, who has since left the force.
Ten months before the shootout, Wesley Rosenberger (second from left) was a trainee officer assigned to the Northern Police District. (Facebook)
Violent Coda
Police identified the gunman as 30-year-old Dontae Green, who was wanted on 19 criminal charges, including attempted murder, armed robbery and handgun violations.
Five days later, Green was killed when U.S. Marshals raided a house on North Mount Street to serve a warrant for his arrest. Hiding in a closet, Green wounded a marshal before he was shot dead.
In the aftermath of the supermarket shootout, then-Police Commissioner Michael Harrison praised the two officers. “They acted with great bravery. They acted swiftly,” he said.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, was hospitalized, underwent surgery and moved to Philadelphia.
Two years later, his attorney, William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr., filed a lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court, seeking at least $150,000 in damages for “gross negligence” on the part of Rosenberger and BPD.
“Mr. Rodriguez was shot and seriously injured because of the incompetence of BPD” – Attorney Billy Murphy.
Murphy said the incident showed that “Officer Rosenberger [displayed] carelessness and recklessness from the moment he entered the store and had no regard for civilians in the line of fire. Mr. Rodriguez was shot and seriously injured because of the incompetence of BPD and he deserves justice.”
Murphy said that his client, while lucky to be alive, suffered from chronic pain and suicidal thoughts and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
To avoid a jury trial, the city law department settled the case for $250,000, and the Board of Estimates is set to approve the agreement tomorrow.
The grocery store has since changed hands, reopening as a Shoppers outlet.
Online city salary records show that Rosenberger left the police force sometime in 2022, but received “gross pay” of $29,094 in fiscal 2023 and $42,880 in fiscal 2024.
Luis Rodriguez and his attorney, Billy Murphy, speak to the media in December 2023 after filing a lawsuit against a police officer and the city for “gross negligence.” (WMAR)