Another story of a Good Guy With a Gun comes to us right before the holidays, though it unfortunately takes place in Baltimore where the locals have more problems than they need already. The tale takes place yesterday when an as yet unnamed police officer was returning home after his shift and met with an unpleasant encounter. 32-year-old Edel Moreland, a man who had already amassed a criminal record including assault and drug charges, confronted the officer and “announced a robbery.” Sadly, he was using a very realistic looking toy revolver. The officer was carrying a weapon which was decidedly not a toy and things quickly took a turn for the worse for Moreland. (Fox News)

An off-duty Baltimore cop shot and killed an armed robbery suspect who police say tried to rob the officer with what turned out to be a toy gun.

The shooting Saturday at 1:30 a.m. on a block of homes decorated with Christmas lights in the Baltimore suburb of Linthicum Heights was being investigated by Anne Arundel County Police, Fox 45 reported. Police said, according to the the station, that the officer fired in self-defense. They identified the robbery suspect as 32-year-old Edel Moreland.

“We feel very bad for the Moreland family to deal with the loss of a son especially around the holidays,” Anne Arundel Police Lt. Ryan Frashure told the station. “I’m sorry, our condolences to the family. Our condolences to the Baltimore city officer. It’s a very unfortunate incident to be placed into.”

Sadly, since this is Baltimore we’re talking about, this could still turn into a problem. The cop was off duty and not pursuing any bad guys and the robber clearly placed him in a position where he was in fear of his life, but I won’t be terribly shocked if some Social Justice Warriors set up a march protesting this anyway. But then, perhaps they’d be willing to listen to the officer’s neighbor. (WBAL-TV)

“He picked the wrong guy to fool with, and it’s a shame that happened to him, but it would have been more of a shame if something happened to the young man or his family,” said Scott Wunderlich, the officer’s neighbor…

“I think he’s a fine, upstanding young man in the neighborhood,” Wunderlich said. “(I’m) very glad to have him here, very glad to have someone who’s a cop here.”

Wunderlich said he’s not worried about his safety on the heels of the violent crime.

“We got the handgun maybe two or three years ago for this very reason, and that’s good enough for us,” he said.

Even the local reports – which have, in the past, delivered some pretty biased, anti-cop coverage – make this sound like a fairly open and shut case. You can go marching in the streets over pretty much anything, but when you roll up on a cop and put a believable model of a weapon in his face, things are going to go badly for you. It goes back to the old rule of never bringing a knife to a gun fight. Even worse… don’t bring an unloaded gun or a toy one either. The other guy probably isn’t going to wait around to evaluate what you’re packing.