An Anne Arundel County judge denied bail on Thursday for Eric G. Banks, Jr., a suspended Baltimore police officer accused by prosecutors of hiding the body of his 15-year-old stepson in the walls of his home.
The charges against Banks, assault, reckless endangerment, disarming a police officer and resisting arrest, stem from his struggle with officers called to his Curtis Bay home Tuesday night, after receiving a complaint that his stepson, Dasan Jones, was being held against his will. Charging documents say that Banks told officers that Jones wasn’t there and allowed a search of his property, where two other children were home.
In a bedroom, officers saw a hole in the wall, with a cover over it. Banks claimed it was a gun safe; when officers searched inside, they found Jones’ body. Documents say that Banks attempted to run after being handcuffed and attempted to grab an officer’s gun.
“Mr. Banks stated multiple times ‘you’re gonna have to end this’ as we were wrestling over the firearm,” the officer wrote in a charging document.
An autopsy of Jones’ body and an investigation into his death is underway.
During the bail review hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Miller told District Court Judge Danielle Mosley that Banks had moved and hidden his stepson’s body.
“He admits to officers that he moved his son’s body from one location in the home, and secreted it in another,” Miller said. “He has shown that he is not afraid to resort to violence.”
Banks’ lawyer, Warren Anthony Brown, petitioned the judge to release him to 24/7 home confinement, but Mosley called Banks a flight risk and a potential harm to himself and others and denied the request.
Last month, Banks’ wife attempted to receive a temporary protective order from him and requested full custody of Jones and her two other sons, citing emotional and mental abuse, according to court documents. District Court of Maryland Judge Ronald Alan Karasic denied her request on June 28.
Banks is a three-year veteran of BPD; city records show he earned a $54,454 salary and $88,933 in gross pay during the 2020 fiscal year. He had been suspended prior to the incident Tuesday, city Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said at a news conference regarding a slew of unrelated arrests.
“The deputy commissioner and I have been in communication with the chief of Anne Arundel County,” Harrison said, noting that Anne Arundel County police, not BPD, will not investigate the Curtis Bay crime. “The officer was already suspended based on a previous incident and is now suspended without pay, pending the outcome of that criminal and administrative investigation.”
He did not specify the incident behind Banks’ original suspension.
