No Charges Will be Filed in Sep. 2025 Fatal Officer-Involved Shooting in Cambridge
CAMBRIDGE, Md. – Attorney General (AG) Anthony G. Brown announced his decision not to seek charges in the fatal police-involved shooting that occurred in Cambridge on Sept. 4, 2025.
The AG’s Independent Investigations Division (IID) began investigating the fatal police-involved shooting the day it occurred, and concluded its investigation on Wednesday, Mar. 25. After evaluating all the available evidence, the Office of the AG determined that the subject officer, identified as 6-year veteran of the Cambridge Police Department (CPD), Corporal Jacob Weber, did not commit a crime under Maryland law. Accordingly, the AG has declined to prosecute Corporal Weber in this case. The following details are provided in the AG’s official declination report.
Details of the Shooting
On Sept. 4, 2025, at approximately 5:10 p.m., CPD officers responded to the Deep Harbour Estates for several reports of a naked man chasing multiple neighboring residents with a knife. The situation progressed as the man threatened and attempted to hurt his parents, with whom he resided.
When officers arrived, they encountered a naked man, later identified as 30-year-old Ryan Garcy of Cambridge, holding a knife and a red cup. Officers attempted to speak with Garcy, asking him to drop the knife, but he did not comply. At one point, Garcy threw the red cup at a patrol cruiser, asking officers if they were planning to shoot him.
Officers ordered Garcy to stay back; when he did not, they deployed their tasers, which were ineffective against him. Still armed with a knife, Garcy chased after Corporal Weber. While running, Corporal Weber withdrew his department issued handgun and proceeded to strike Garcy once he was within a few feet of the armed officer. Officers requested emergency medical services and provided medical aid until responders arrived on scene. Garcy was transported to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Autopsy and Ballistics Report
According to the autopsy report, Garcy sustained four gunshot wounds: one to the right neck, one to the right chest, one to the left arm, and one to the right thigh. There was reportedly no evidence of close-range discharge of a firearm.
Maryland State Police Crime Scene technicians processed the scene. Technicians recovered Corporal Weber’s department-issued Glock 22, 40 caliber handgun as well as five cartridge casings from the scene, indicating that five rounds were fired from the handgun.
IID Legal Analysis
Based on the evidence in this case, investigators say three relevant offenses were considered. First is a violation of Maryland’s Use of Force Statute, which criminalizes intentionally used excessive force by officers. The second and third offenses are homicide-related charges based on the intentional killing of a person.
The report argues that when the officers encountered Garcy with a knife in his hand, they had a legitimate law enforcement purpose to disarm him. Consistent with CPD policies, Corporal Weber
attempted to de-escalate the situation by talking to the subject and giving him multiple commands to drop the knife and stay back. When Garcy ignored those commands and continued walking
towards Corporal Weber with the knife in his hand, Corporal Weber used his taser in an attempt to subdue Garcy with non-lethal force. These attempts to mitigate the situation before discharging a lethal service weapon led the IID to decline pursuing charges.
“Mr. Garcy’s decision to ignore Corporal Weber’s commands and to chase after Corporal Weber while holding a knife presented an immediate threat of serious bodily harm or death to Corporal Weber,” the report reads. “Given this threat, we cannot prove that the use of deadly force in response was unnecessary.”
The homicide-related charges were dismissed in accordance with the legal precedent of complete self-defense. Complete self-defense, also known as perfect self-defense, exists when the accused is not the initial aggressor, had the subjective belief they or another were in immediate harm, used force that was not more than what was reasonably necessary, and used force for the purpose of aiding the person that they were defending.
Based on the IID investigation, the actions of Corporal Weber do not constitute the crime of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter.
