In a small Maryland town, a deadly police shooting dredges up an officer's past
BALTIMORE — The family of James Meadows doesn’t know what set off the frightening breakdown of his final hours. The 45-year-old construction worker was suicidal and mumbling to God in the sky. Before police came, he bashed in his father’s locked cabinet and snatched two handguns.
“They are going to shoot you!” Joseph Meadows shouted to his armed son, according to a police report.
Three officers opened fire, killing Meadows that evening in May 2019 — a rare police shooting in the small Cecil County town of Rising Sun, Maryland. As the family’s lawyer investigates their actions, he says he’s made a troubling discovery about one of the cops.
Before veteran police officer Daniel Stickney Jr. took a job in Rising Sun, he faced three federal lawsuits in the Philadelphia suburbs. He was accused of trumping up charges against one man, wrongfully arresting another and twice searching an elderly women’s home without a warrant. All three cases were thrown out or settled.
