On March 12, 2001, Michael Joseph Cowdery Jr., a 31-year-old Baltimore City Police Agent, was killed while working in a plainclothes unit focused on violent crime. Cowdery and his partner were questioning two men in the 2300 block of Harford Road, an area noted for open-air drug markets, when a third man, identified as Howard T. Whitworth, appeared and opened fire with a .357 caliber pistol.

Cowdery was struck in the leg, and while he lay on the sidewalk Whitworth reportedly grabbed him by the collar and fired a second, fatal shot to the head at close range. An officer who witnessed the shooting pursued Whitworth, exchanged gunfire with him during a roughly 100-yard chase and incapacitated him before taking him into custody. Cowdery was taken to a hospital and died about 30 minutes later.

The motive remained unclear in the initial reports, though investigators considered the possibility that Whitworth had mistaken the plainclothes agent for a rival drug dealer. If anyone knew Agent Cowdery, was in the Harford Road area that day, or has information about what led up to the shooting, please share what is known.