When a Baltimore bystander pulled out a phone and hit “record,” they probably didn’t expect it would end with a police officer staring down an attempted murder charge.
But that’s exactly what happened to Baltimore Police Officer Robert A. Parks after a viral video appeared to show him using his marked cruiser to chase down – and hit – a man in a neighborhood near a liquor store.
WBFF reporter Alexa Ashwell says Parks is now suspended without pay and has been indicted on multiple charges, including second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless driving, and misconduct in office, according to Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates.
If convicted on everything, Ashwell notes he faces up to 65 years in prison.
What The Viral Video Shows
Ashwell explains that the incident started on October 28 outside Wylie Liquors Bar in North Baltimore.
According to the indictment she summarized, Parks pulled up to a group of people standing outside and told them, “It’s getting a little hot, guys. I just need you guys to take a lap, you know.”
One of the men began walking away as others dispersed. Parks then got back into his patrol car, drove a short distance, and stopped near the man he later targeted.
Ashwell reports that prosecutors say Parks called out to the man again and motioned for him to walk toward the cruiser.
The man said “no” and turned away.
At that point, the situation went from routine contact to something that looks, on video, like a deliberate vehicular attack.
Prosecutors Say Parks Turned His Car Into A Weapon
Bates told reporters – in remarks quoted by Ashwell – that Parks drove his cruiser off the roadway into a paved driveway and then straight at the man, accelerating as he went.
When the man cut left into a grassy area to escape, prosecutors say Parks steered directly toward him and struck him with the police vehicle.
Ashwell notes that this moment is what the viral cellphone clip captured and sent racing around social media.
The video doesn’t stop there.
Ashwell’s reporting on the indictment says the man took off running toward Wylie Avenue, trying to use a utility pole and fence as barriers.
Instead of stopping, Parks allegedly followed him, driving the cruiser onto the sidewalk and squeezing the car between the pole and fence, still headed straight at the man.
When the man escaped down an alley, Ashwell says the indictment claims Parks made a U-turn, drove down the same alley, then plowed through a chain-link fence into an elderly woman’s backyard on Sumter Avenue.
The car finally became disabled after that crash, and Parks allegedly jumped out to chase the man on foot before breaking off and returning to the wrecked cruiser.
At that point, this wasn’t just a “bad look on video.” It was a scene out of an action movie – in a residential neighborhood – over a man with a misdemeanor warrant.
City Leaders Condemn The Incident
Ashwell reports that Bates told the public the charges “reflect the seriousness and dangerous nature of the actions we all witnessed in the viral video of Officer Parks driving his vehicle directly at a civilian while on duty.”
He stressed that these are the same charges his office would file “for anyone operating a vehicle in this manner,” not just a cop.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley, in statements quoted by Ashwell and other outlets, called the video “disturbing” and “alarming.”
He said, “This is not how we expect our officers to behave and this incident does not reflect the values or standards of the Baltimore Police Department,” and promised that officers would be held accountable as the city tries to rebuild trust.
Mayor Brandon Scott also weighed in, saying Parks’ actions were “unacceptable and completely at odds with how we expect our public servants to act.”
Scott said that Parks’ police powers were first suspended, then he was suspended without pay, and if convicted, “the officer will be fired immediately, in accordance with the law,” as Ashwell’s report notes.
Those are strong words. But for a lot of people watching that clip, the shock isn’t that leaders condemned it. The shock is that it happened in the first place.
A Defense Lawyer Calls It “Policing By Ego”
Criminal defense attorney and former cop James White, on his Southern Drawl Law channel, spent a long time breaking down the Parks case and the video.
White says you rarely see officers literally chasing someone down with a cruiser unless it’s a high-stakes pursuit or a deadly threat.
Here, he says, all you really have is an officer who believes a man has a misdemeanor warrant and doesn’t like being told “no.”
White tells his viewers that, based on the reporting and the viral footage, Parks seemed to be operating from “ego, not public safety.”
He points out how Parks stands by the cruiser and motions with his finger instead of walking over and calmly talking to the man. To White, that finger-wagging posture is a “dominance technique” – treating someone like a subject, not a citizen.
In his words, “You don’t chase somebody down in a car and not care whether or not you injure them over some misdemeanor warrant if you’re a decent person trying to conduct lawful activity.”
He compares using the car that way to using a firearm: a car used as a battering ram is a form of deadly force, and deadly force simply isn’t justified to pick up a non-violent misdemeanor suspect.
White’s blunt about the bigger issue he sees: “Policing by ego is the cancer that is eating at the soul of the institution of law enforcement.”
In his view, this kind of case doesn’t come from one bad five-minute decision. It comes from a culture that gives young officers a badge, gun, and almost no training on emotional control, de-escalation, or the constitutional limits of their power.
Can Prosecutors Really Prove Attempted Murder?
White also digs into the legal side that Ashwell’s short TV piece doesn’t have room to explore.
He notes that in Maryland, attempted murder generally requires proof of a specific intent to kill – not just recklessness, not just indifference.
Unless there’s body-cam or dash-cam audio of Parks saying something like “I’m going to kill him,” White thinks it will be hard for prosecutors to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Parks intended to kill the man.
He explains that Maryland’s reckless-endangerment statute specifically excludes vehicles, which takes away one obvious charge that would fit this kind of conduct in many other states.
That leaves prosecutors with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and misconduct in office – the same bundle of charges Ashwell reported.
White predicts that the cleanest felony case is actually misconduct in office, a common-law offense that focuses on abusing official authority rather than the specific injuries to one victim.
Because the entire incident is on video, he argues, the state can show Parks was on duty, acting under color of law, and willfully doing something no reasonable officer could think was okay: using a marked cruiser as a weapon over a minor warrant.
In his view, the most likely outcome is a plea deal: Parks loses his job and certification, pleads to misconduct, and ends up with a felony record and probation rather than a decades-long prison term.
That doesn’t mean what he did wasn’t dangerous enough to kill someone. It just means that criminal statutes don’t always line up neatly with what the video shows.
Why This Case Still Matters Even If The Top Charge Fails
Both Ashwell and White highlight how much this case is really about public trust.
Baltimore Police have been under federal oversight for years after the Department of Justice found a pattern of unconstitutional policing and excessive force.
Bates himself said that when officers threaten the safety of the people they’re sworn to protect, it “erodes the crucial trust between the community and law enforcement” and can set back hard-won reductions in violent crime.
White goes even further. He argues that cases like this will keep happening until departments stop treating “ego-driven” officers as just a few bad apples and start treating unchecked discretion and power as the deeper disease.
He says real reform would mean hiring people with the right temperament, giving serious training on ego control and constitutional limits, and actually charging officers when they step outside their legal authority – not just when a TikTok clip goes viral.
That last point is worth sitting with.
If there had been no bystander with a phone and no viral video, would the public have ever heard about a cruiser chasing a man through yards and fences over a misdemeanor warrant?
Ashwell’s report and White’s analysis both suggest the answer might be no – and that’s exactly why these videos and independent breakdowns matter.
Because at the end of the day, this isn’t just a story about one officer’s awful judgment.
It’s a story about what happens when regular people record what they see, reporters like Alexa Ashwell put it in front of the public, lawyers like James White explain the law behind it, and prosecutors decide that a badge doesn’t shield someone from the same criminal charges anyone else would face for using a car like a weapon.
And if that combination of cameras, reporting, and accountability makes other officers think twice before turning a cruiser into a battering ram, then this one viral clip may end up changing more than just Robert Parks’ career.
A former park ranger and wildlife conservationist, Lisa’s passion for survival started with her deep connection to nature. Raised on a small farm in northern Wisconsin, she learned how to grow her own food, raise livestock, and live off the land. Lisa is our dedicated Second Amendment news writer and also focuses on homesteading, natural remedies, and survival strategies. Lisa aims to help others live more sustainably and prepare for the unexpected.
