Pubdate: Sat, 02 Dec 2000
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2000 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  501 N. Calvert Street P.0. Box 1377 Baltimore, MD 21278
Fax: (410) 315-8912
Website: http://www.sunspot.net/
Forum: http://www.sunspot.net/cgi-bin/ultbb/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro
Author: Del Quentin Wilber
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1699/a03.html

DETAILS OF TOATLEY SHOOTING OFFERED

Pretrial Hearing Is Held In Death Of Undercover Trooper

WASHINGTON - An alleged drug dealer and an undercover Maryland trooper 
struggled briefly before the dealer took a step back and shot the trooper 
in the head, killing him, a police detective testified in U.S. District 
Court yesterday.

The shooter then calmly walked away, apparently unaware police officers 
were surreptitiously watching the entire scene from across the street, said 
Detective Lorren Leadmon of Washington, D.C., police.

Two weeks after the shooting, police arrested Kofi Apea Orleans-Lindsay, 
23, in New York City and charged him with first-degree murder in the death 
of Cpl. Edward M. Toatley.

After Leadmon's testimony in a pretrial detention hearing yesterday, 
Magistrate Judge John Facciola ordered Orleans-Lindsay held without bond 
pending trial.

During the hearing, Leadmon revealed new details about the shooting Oct. 30 
in Northeast Washington. Toatley was part of a federal, state and local 
task force investigating drug dealing in Washington and its suburbs.

The task force started its drug investigation Oct. 3, Leadmon said. 
Sometime before Oct. 30, Toatley told his colleagues that he was going to 
purchase drugs that night from Orleans-Lindsay, according to the detective.

Leadmon said two video cameras recorded the incident, which began about 
8:20 p.m. when Toatley picked up a sus-pected drug dealer and drove him to 
the 2000 block of Douglas St., a residential neighborhood.

Leadmon testified that the tapes - one made from a camera in the dashboard 
and another on the driver's side of the car - clearly show Orleans-Lindsay 
in Toatley's Toyota. Orleans-Lindsay was wearing a sweat shirt with large 
letters reading "GAP" on the chest.

After accepting $3,500 from Toatley for drugs, Orleans-Lindsay got out of 
the car and walked down the street, Leadmon testified. Ninety seconds 
later, a police officer in a nearby van reported that Orleans-Lindsay 
returned to Toatley's truck, said Leadmon, who conceded during cross 
examination that the officer couldn't clearly see the suspect's face.

The man opened the passenger side door of Toatley's car, Leadmon said, and 
Toatley asked if anything was wrong. The man then reached under his sweat 
shirt, pulled out a gun and pointed it at Toatley, who quickly tried to bat 
the gun away, Leadmon said. The man stepped back and shot Toatley, Leadmon 
said.

Leadmon said the videotapes in the car show that the shooter was wearing a 
sweatshirt identical to one worn minutes earlier by Orleans-Lindsay. During 
cross-examination, he said that the shooter's face could not be clearly seen.

The face "was just a tad short of being clear," Leadmon said.

Orleans-Lindsay's attorney, Billy Ponds, says police and prosecutors cannot 
prove that his client pulled the trigger because the tape does not show the 
face of the shooter. "There is no clear evidence that he is the shooter," 
Ponds said after the hearing.

After the shooting, Leadmon said, police recovered a key chain, with "Kofi" 
written on it, in a nearby alley. Officers also found with the key chain an 
obituary of one of Orleans-Lindsay's friends, who was killed in September.

Police launched a nationwide manhunt for Orleans-Lindsay and arrested him 
in New York City on Nov. 13. He had an identification card that had his 
picture but a different name, Arturo Sereno, Leadmon said.
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