A Montgomery County police officer will not be charged in an incident May 30, 2024, in which Bishop Jones-Daniels, a father of two was fatally shot.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown issued a report on March 18 stating his office would not seek charges in the officer-involved shooting in the 3300 block of Hampton Point Road in Fairland for a domestic issue.
Brown called the evidence in the case insufficient to bring charges and did not believe a prosecutor could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an officer had committed a crime.
The Attorney General’s report states: “With respect to whether the use of force was necessary, Mr. Jones-Daniels had a handgun and had already fired it multiple times when the officers arrived in response to the 911 call. Mother reported to officers that Mr. Jones-Daniel was preventing her from leaving the residence.”
According to the investigation, Bishop Jones-Daniel’s brother called 911 to report his brother and mother were in the apartment and his brother had a handgun.
For more than two hours, police spoke with the two people in the home by telephone. Then tactical officers entered the residence and found Jones holding a handgun. County Police Officer Edward Cochran fired his weapon multiple times.
Jones was treated at the scene but later pronounced dead at a hospital.
According to the attorney general’s report: “The evidence shows that Mr. Jones-Daniel was the aggressor and that the subject officer held an objectively reasonable belief of imminent danger of serious harm or death. Mr. Jones-Daniel was armed, refused to leave his apartment or surrender his weapon despite long negotiations, held a handgun for the duration of the incident, including when confronted by officers, and evidence suggests an exchange of gunfire with the Tactical Section officers.”
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed an autopsy and determined that Jones-Daniel suffered nine gunshot wounds to his chest, abdomen, upper back and both arms and that these gunshot wounds caused his death.
During the autopsy, no evidence of soot deposition or gunpowder stippling was found, which means Jones-Daniel was not shot at close range, according to the Attorney General’s report.
The autopsy also revealed that narcotics were present in Jones-Daniel’s system at the time of the incident.
In August of 2024, the state released the police video of the incident. In it, the mother of Bishop Jones can be heard screaming, “Stop. Stop. No, baby no. No baby” multiple times.
“Stop shooting the gun, baby please,” LaTanya Jones can be heard pleading with her son.
She can be heard begging her son, who was the father of two and a graduate of Springbrook High School to put down his gun. “They’ll shoot you. I don’t want them to shoot you,” Jones can be heard saying on the video.
A little later, she repeats, “They are going to kill you, and I don’t want that baby.”
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