Videos show Baltimore County Police detaining man who died at hospital in January

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released body-camera footage Thursday showing Baltimore County Police handcuffing and providing medical aid to a man who later died at a hospital.

Police said officers had responded at about 11 p.m. Jan. 10 to the intersection of Rosewood Lane and Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills for a call about a “suspicious person.” The 911 caller said the person was impaired and acting aggressively, according to text introducing the videos.

The videos show officers approaching Craig Cousin, 41, of Pikesville as his father and a woman struggled to control him outside a Taco Bell. Although Cousin initially struggled with police and spoke to them, he appeared to pass out before medics arrived.

The attorney general’s office released body camera videos from county police officers Folderauer, Cantrell, Eskins and Marsh. A county salary database lists police officers David Folderauer Jr., Donald Cantrell, Alex Eskins and James Marsh.

The woman told police at first that Cousin “took something,” but that she wasn’t sure what substance, according to the videos.

“We called the ambulance and they can’t find out where we are,” she told Folderauer.

Videos show that soon after the first officers arrived a partially clothed Cousin reached through a shattered drive-through window as police and his father tried to pull him back. An officer can be heard saying later that Cousin had broken the window.

Officers struggled to handcuff Cousin and eventually pushed him down onto a patch of grass, where they spoke to him calmly as he yelled out.

“Hey Craig, man, what’s up buddy? Did you take something?” asked Folderauer as he knelt on Cousin’s back.

Cousin responded that he’d been drinking.

Eventually, officers handcuffed Cousin and shackled his legs. Cousin vomited and passed out, officers said in the video, but he appeared to keep breathing. Blood is visible on his arms in the videos.

“How long for the ambulance?” the woman asked police after Cousin became unresponsive.

She told police that Cousin’s father said he had consumed unknown pills and hand sanitizer.

“Step the medics up, this guy’s not breathing,” Marsh said into his radio, according to his body camera video.

County officers administered Narcan, an overdose-reversing drug, before medics loaded him onto a stretcher about 12 minutes after police arrived at the scene.

The attorney general’s office is investigating the death because it occurred in police custody. By law, the unit of the office is only allowed to investigate the actions of law enforcement, not emergency medical personnel in such a death.

The day before Cousin’s death, Baltimore County Police fatally shot 29-year-old Sha-Kim Akil Webley at a Pikesville gas station. Body camera video released last week showed Webley, of Windsor Mill, holding a gun before officers shot him. The attorney general’s office is still investigating that death along with the November shooting of Arnel Redfern, 52, in Parkville.

Folderauer has been investigated previously for alleged violations of the department’s use-of-force policy and cleared. An attorney for Baltimore County dismissed an administrative charge against him related to hitting a man in the head with a flashlight in 2021 after Folderauer appealed. In May 2023, a county police trial board ruled he had not violated department policy in a separate 2020 incident when he struck a man in the head 15 to 20 times.

Last year, the civilian Administrative Charging Committee reviewed a July 29 complaint from a motorist who said Folderauer had used excessive force and racially profiled her during a traffic stop. The committee wrote in a December opinion that body camera footage showed he had been “professional, calm and patient” with the driver and hadn’t touched her.