The shooting in the Baltimore Police Homicide squad room is based on a real life event, which Lt. Giardello mentions when speaking to Colonel Barnfather. It is based off a shooting that happened inside the headquarters of the Washington D.C. Metro Police Department on November 22, 1994 when a shooter armed with a compact semi-automatic rifle opened fire inside a homicide squad room killing a Metro PD homicide detective, two FBI agents, and wounding a third FBI agent plus a 15-year old boy.
The shooting occurred in a third floor squad room being used by a task force comprised of Metro PD homicide detectives and FBI agents working on old, unsolved homicide cases. The shooter was a 22-year old drug dealer who had been questioned by the task force several days earlier as the prime suspect in the triple murder of a 89-year old retired federal worker, his 22 year-old granddaughter, and her 33 year-old friend; they were killed in a robbery by three masked gunman who broke into their home demanding money, jewelry, and the grandfather's prescription painkillers. When the granddaughter didn't immediately comply, they shot her in the head and then her friend; the grandfather then attacked the gunman, trying to wrestle the gun away when one of his accomplices shot the man in the back. The shooter, angry at being implicated as a suspect, exited the third floor elevator and asked to speak to the homicide unit's commander. Upon seeing him, the shooter removed an AR-style pistol he had inside his jacket and opened fire. The building was sealed off until Metro PD SWAT, called the Emergency Response Unit, could respond; upon making entry, they discovered the first to be killed was Sgt. Henry Joseph "Hank" Daly (age 51). He was a detective supervising the homicide task force and a 28-year veteran of the MPD. Next, they found the bodies of FBI Special Agents Martha Dixon Martinez (age 35) & Michael John Miller (age 41) who were both part of the task force. Martinez had been with the FBI for seven years and Miller for eight. Next, they found FBI Special Agent John David Kuchta (age 31) badly injured with a gunshot wound to the chest and leg; Kuchta had been with the FBI for three years and was also part of the task force. He was in critical condition and required eight hours of emergency surgery but eventually recovered; the 15-year old boy was hit in the leg and only had minor injury. The SWAT officers found the body of the shooter laying next to Agents Martinez and Miller with a gunshot wound to the head. At first, it wasn't clear if he was shot by one of the officers or agents, but witnesses said, after shooting Kutcha, he turned his gun on himself and took his own life, which forensics and ballistic testing confirmed.
