Police ID Suspect with Hatchet in Middle River Assault

MIDDLE RIVER, MD – Authorities have identified the man suspected of assaulting two people with a hatchet and later lunging at a police officer with a knife.

Travis Jay Hunt, 22, of the 300 block of Grovethorn Road, will be charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, armed robbery and other offenses.

Officials said they have not yet served the arrest warrant to Hunt, who is at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center recovering from a gunshot wound.

An officer who came looking for Hunt in connection with the hatchet assault said he approached her with a knife and she fired one shot, fearing for the safety of herself and his relative in the home.

Officer Andujo, who has been with the department for a year and a half in the Essex precinct, is on administrative assignment pending a routine investigation following a police-involved shooting.

Related:

• 1 Hospitalized from Officer-Involved Shooting
• Officer-Involved Shooting in Middle River

The investigation that led to Hunt started with an alleged hatchet attack.

Hunt and a woman had been watching TV in the 200 block of Wampler Road before 7 p.m. on Saturday when he went into the bathroom and came out with a hatchet, police said.

After attacking a man and woman inside the home with the weapon, Hunt allegedly took the woman's purse and left the premises. Authorities said they found the hatchet and the purse, with $150 in cash missing, nearby.

Andujo and a relative of Hunt went looking for him in the basement of a residence where he had been staying, and Hunt appeared with a large knife and a cut on his neck under the stairs, according to police.

He fell and dropped the knife and upon trying to pick it up, police allege he lunged at the officer, who feared for her safety and fired her gun.

Officials said Hunt is in critical but stable condition at shock trauma.

Both individuals who were assaulted with the hatchet have been treated at an area hospital and released, according to police.