Baltimore County police shot and killed Cheryl Noel during a January 2005 raid on her home.[1][2][3][4][5]
Just before 5 a.m. on Friday 21 January 2005, officers of the Baltimore County Police tactical unit served a search-and-seizure warrant tied to a narcotics investigation at a home in the 8100 block of Del Haven Road in the Gray Haven area.[4] The officers had obtained the warrant after finding evidence of personal drug use in the trash cans behind the Noel home, and they chose a no-knock entry because some residents had criminal histories and two owned registered handguns.[4][5]
After breaking down the front door and detonating a flash-bang grenade, seven officers entered the house and four ran upstairs to the bedroom where Cheryl Noel, 44, and her husband Charles were sleeping.[5] Hearing the commotion, Cheryl Noel grabbed her handgun and stood up out of bed, holding it pointed slightly downward at waist level as two officers kicked open the bedroom door.[5] The officers said they had yelled “Police, police, police” throughout the raid as procedure required.[4]
Fearing for his life, Officer Carlos Artson fired three shots, striking and killing Noel.[4] Artson first fired twice as she stood by the bed, then fired a third shot into her chest after she moved her hand toward the gun lying about eight inches away; the coroner found that only the third shot was immediately fatal.[5] The officer was placed on administrative leave pending investigation by the county’s homicide and internal affairs divisions, and police did not name him at the time.[4]
On the same day, police charged Charles Noel, 51, with two counts of possessing more than five pounds of black powder along with single counts of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia.[4] Nineteen-year-olds Matthew Noel and Sarah Betz were each charged with possessing drug paraphernalia and possessing marijuana, and all three were later released on their own recognizance.[4] Neighbours and a co-worker described Noel as a religious, hard-working woman and said her alleged actions with the gun did not fit her character, with one suggesting she had come to the door thinking someone was breaking into her house.[4]
Her family filed a civil rights lawsuit in 2006, and weeks later the department gave[1] Artson its Silver Star for his actions during the raid.[1]
In March 2009 a federal jury returned[1][2] a verdict for the police, and a federal appeals court upheld it in 2011.[1][2]
