59-Year-Old Retired Baltimore Officer Strikes Intruder With Hammer After Wife Finds Stranger Crouching at Bottom of Stairs

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BALTIMORE, MD — A 59-year-old retired police officer struck an intruder with a hammer late Friday night after his wife found a stranger crouching at the bottom of the stairs inside their Morrell Park home.

Baltimore police said officers responded to the 2500 block of Washington Boulevard around 11:29 p.m. and found one man being held down by another, as reported by FOX45, which spoke with homeowner Anthony Mills and his wife, Kim.

Mills told the station it started after Kim came home from an evening out with friends. She came in through the back door and stepped back out to grab something from her car. Then she came inside again, secured the door and went upstairs.

A short time later, the couple’s dog, Scooter, started barking at the top of the staircase and would not stop. Kim went to see why.

“I came halfway down when I realized that he was just crouching there,” she said.

She went straight back to the bedroom to alert her husband. Backing away from a stranger in the house and getting help was the right move.

Mills went downstairs to confront the man.

“I wanted to see the gentleman’s hands to see if he may have had a weapon of some sort and I couldn’t get to his hands,” Mills said. “So I reached over on my steps and I had a hammer and had struck him to get him to cooperate so I could see his hands.”

According to police dispatch audio, the man was struck in the head. “Apparently the homeowner cracked him in the head with a hammer, small hammer of some sort,” a dispatcher said.

“I think my training kicked in, that’s why I wanted to see his hands,” Mills said.

That is the mindset that matters here. A stranger inside your home at night is an unknown, and his hands tell you whether he is armed. Mills could not see them, so he acted.

The two men struggled toward the front door and ended up outside. Kim called 911. Mills shouted for help. Neighbors came running, and one man stepped into the yard and took the hammer away.

“The community came together and came right to the house,” Mills said.

Near the end, outside, the man started apologizing. “He’s like, ‘I’m sorry, I am sorry,’” Mills said.

Mills believes the man came in through the back door. He said that door had been secured with a bar running from the knob to the floor, and the bar had been pushed out. The back gate was also open when he checked.

A bar from knob to floor is a solid layer of home security, but it is still only a layer. In this house, the first warning came from a dog that would not stop barking.

The struggle left blood on the couple’s front door, porch and floor.

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Police said the man was taken to a hospital with serious injuries and will be taken to Central Booking once he is released, according to WBFF’s video report. He has not been publicly identified, and no specific charges have been reported. Any charges would be allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless convicted. No charging decision involving Mills has been announced.

Mills said he is grateful for his neighbors, but he wants the man held responsible. “I just want to see something done to let people know you can’t go in somebody’s house and expect to walk out,” he said.

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