Family Of Armed Robber Fatally Shot By Off-Duty, Retired Officers Speak Out

The family of an armed robber fatally shot by an off-duty school police officer and a retired Department of Corrections officer are speaking out after his death, WBAL-TV 11 reports.

The man's family gathered outside of City Hall Monday in protest, believing he was running away from the gunfire. The man's mother, father, grandmother and other relatives were present.

"My son was running. They didn't have to shoot him. They didn't have to kill him in his back! In his back," the man's mother told WBAL-TV 11.

"He finally got his stuff together. He got two jobs, two cars -- doing good. Why he got to rob somebody? It don't make sense. I just want the truth," Earl Gardner, Jones' grandmother, told WBAL-TV 11.

According to the Baltimore Police Department, Devante Jones, 22, approached two men on the corner of East 23rd Street and Guilford Avenue around 11 p.m. Saturday and attempted to rob them. Officials with the BPD said Jones had a BB gun.

"He was wearing a black mask and he pulled a gun on them," Detective Donny Moses of the BPD told WBAL-TV 11.

Jones announced the robbery, but both officers withdrew their guns and fired at Jones, striking him multiple times, police say.

"One a retired correctional officer, the other a school police officer drew their firearms and opened fire on that suspect, striking him," Moses told WBAL-TV 11.

Jones fled to the 200 block of 23rd Street and collapsed. According to a police report, Jones was shot in the upper body and told officers, "They shot me as I tried to rob them."

Jones later died at the hospital.

Court records show Jones had previous run-ins with the law, but his family said he was making positive changes in his life.

"I can never hear my son tell me he love me again. I can't touch my son," Jones' mother said.

"I've got a two-year-old granddaughter asking about her father, 'Where is my father at?' I don't know what to tell her," Jones' mother said.

The off-duty school police officer has been identified as Harvey Battle and the retired corrections officer as Michael Ross.