Baltimore Police sergeant who was injured when a driver dragged him two blocks is released from Shock Trauma
The Baltimore Police sergeant who was injured last month when a driver accelerated during a traffic stop, dragging him, has been released from Shock Trauma, the department said Saturday.
The agency shared photos of police saluting Sgt. Kenny Ramberg as he was rolled on a stretcher down a hallway to a waiting vehicle.
“We continue to keep him and his family lifted in prayer during his long road to recovery,” a tweet from police said.
Police previously said the injured sergeant suffered broken bones and head trauma. He was reportedly on life support the night of the incident, and was upgraded the next day to fair condition.
Baltimore Police spokeswoman Lindsey Eldridge said Saturday that Ramberg was headed to physical therapy after being released from Shock Trauma. She also confirmed Ramberg was the officer injured in the June 28 traffic stop that turned into a dragging.
Joseph Black, the driver accused of accelerating and dragging Ramberg, is charged with attempted murder, first-degree assault, assaulting a law enforcement officer and reckless endangerment.
Black is scheduled for a preliminary hearing July 27, court records show. He was arrested following a barricade in West Baltimore’s Upton neighborhood the morning after Ramberg was injured.
Police Commissioner Michael Harrison previously said the sergeant, who has been with the police department for 27 years, was making a traffic stop just after 8 p.m. June 28 in the 5100 block of Park Heights Avenue in Central Park Heights in Northwest Baltimore when he became “engaged with the vehicle” and was dragged for about two blocks.
Harrison has said Black admitted to being the driver who injured the officer, but hasn’t said what traffic violation led police to stop him.
A public defender, Marianne Lima, who represented Black at his bail review said she didn’t know why he was pulled over. She also said his version of events differs from that given by the police.
Lima said at the hearing that police stopped him, checked his license and kept him there until more officers arrived with weapons drawn. The sergeant tried to remove Black from the car when he panicked, Lima said.
Police and prosecutors say Black dragged the sergeant for two blocks and sideswiped another car to knock the officer off.
District Court Judge James Green ordered Black held without bail June 30.
The Fraternal Order of Police lodge that represents Baltimore Police officers said in an update posted to Twitter this week that Ramberg was “on the mend” and undergoing physical therapy.
“His prognosis is good, but he has a long road of recovery ahead,” the statement said.
Harrison said the night of Ramberg’s injury that the sergeant was doing “exactly what we want them to do.”
He was “out there being proactive. Making sure citizens are being protected. Find people who are doing harm, and making sure the Northwest District is a safe place,” Harrison said.
