On Sept. 26, 2019, police officers from three local jurisdictions responded to an emergency call near the intersection of East-West Highway and Adelphi Road that led to officers shooting and killing Leonard Shand. More than five years later, on Jan. 27, 2025, a county circuit judge ruled in favor of the City of Hyattsville and two Hyattsville Police Department (HPD) officers in a case alleging excessive use of force.
According to a summary of the facts by an appellate court, Shand was agitated and wielding two knives prior to the shooting. Officers attempted to deescalate the situation by negotiating, but resorted to using a taser and pepper spray, and trying to knock Shand down — including by driving a car towards him. Officers then used a flash bang grenade and a beanbag shotgun. (Shand had previously told the officers he would charge if the beanbag shotgun were fired at him.) Six HPD officers, three county police officers and one Mount Rainier officer then fired a total of 24 rounds at Shand, resulting in his death.
About a year later, on Sept. 10, 2020, Aisha Braveboy, state’s attorney for Prince George’s County, announced that a county grand jury had declined to indict any of the officers involved. “Please know that the grand jury’s decision not to indict, and the conclusions reached by the independent use-of-force expert, does not ease our collective grief, nor does it signal that the response of the officers that day was satisfactory,” Braveboy said at the time. On Aug. 22, 2022, a county circuit court decided in favor of the City of Hyattsville and two of its police officers, finding that the police had not used excessive force.
On May 31, 2023, a state appeals court ordered the case back to the county circuit court to consider specifically whether the officers’ simultaneous use of the flash bang grenade and beanbag shotgun constituted unreasonable force.
This Jan. 27, a jury trial commenced at the county circuit court. According to court documents, the City of Hyattsville asked for a summary judgement after the estate of Leonard Shand presented their case. (A summary judgment is a court ruling that ends a case without a full trial.) The judge decided in favor of the City of Hyattsville and the two officers.
On Feb. 18, attorneys representing Shand’s estate requested a new trial. As of press time, the court system had not issued a decision in response to the request.