TROOPER SLAIN AS DRUG BUY WENT BAD

A drug dealer who had pocketed $3,000 from an undercover narcotics
detective fatally shot the officer when a sting operation went afoul Monday
night on a street in Northeast Washington, police said.

Maryland State Trooper Edward M. Toatley, posing as a drug buyer, had given
the money to the dealer and was waiting for him to return with drugs.
Instead, the man came back with a gun, yanking open the door of Toatley's
vehicle and shooting him in the right side of his head, police said.

The drug deal was intended to culminate a three-month investigation by a
joint task force of the FBI, Maryland State Police and Prince George's
County police. A backup team of federal agents was watching from a van
parked down the street, using video cameras and microphones to record the
transaction.

Police said the dealer, whom they identified as Kofi Apea Orleans-Lindsay,
23, a native of Ghana, decided to rob Toatley rather than sell him drugs.

Orleans-Lindsay escaped on foot and was the subject of an extensive police
search.

"We feel that there's a possibility that he's still in the area," D.C.
Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said last night, as scores of law
enforcement officers canvassed the neighborhood where the shooting
occurred, about a mile from the District-Prince George's County boundary.

About a dozen additional phone lines were installed at a command center
established at the 5th Police District headquarters on Bladensburg Road NE
to receive "scores and scores" of tips, said Executive Assistant Chief
Terrance W. Gainer. Numerous sightings of the suspect also were
reported--some as far away as New York--but none panned out, Gainer said.

Toatley, 37, a 16-year officer and father of three, died at Washington
Hospital Center about 2 1/2 hours after the shooting, which happened about
8:40 p.m. Monday.

Col. David B. Mitchell, head of the state police, said it did not appear
that the gunman knew Toatley was a police officer.

"Things happened last night that show [the suspect] did not know Ed's
identity as a trooper," Mitchell said.

The shooting occurred as the joint task force was closing in on a
Maryland-based drug ring whose dealers drive into the District to buy
narcotics, police said.

Toatley and Orleans-Lindsay apparently arrived for a prearranged meeting at
Fourth and Aspen streets about 8 p.m. Monday, police said. Orleans-Lindsay
locked his silver Mercedes-Benz and got into a SUV driven by Toatley.
Orleans-Lindsay directed Toatley to where the drug deal was to be
completed, evidently unaware that they were being trailed by the
surveillance team.

They stopped at Queens Chapel Road and Douglas Street, where the backup
team listened from a block away as the details of the drug buy were
finalized. A video camera recorded Orleans-Lindsay leaving the vehicle,
ostensibly to get the drugs. There was no indication that anything had gone
wrong, according to Assistant D.C. Police Chief William McManus.

After the shooting, the surveillance team immediately leapt from the van,
but Orleans-Lindsay ran off, ducking into about an acre of thick woods.

Mitchell said that the drug buy had been well planned and that Toatley was
an officer seasoned by dozens, if not hundreds, of undercover missions.

The search quickly led to the small brick ranch house in Silver Spring
where Orleans-Lindsay lived with his mother. As a helicopter hovered above
yesterday, about 25 FBI agents and state troopers surrounded the house in
what proved a fruitless search.

Neighbor John Murphy, 52, said that Orleans-Lindsay was quiet but that he
had a "gut feeling" something was wrong, because there was a steady flow of
late-night visitors to the house. He said the FBI and police had raided the
house about a year ago and carried out computer equipment.

Yesterday afternoon, a woman who identified herself as Orleans-Lindsay's
mother declined to comment.

An arrest warrant issued yesterday charged Orleans-Lindsay with
first-degree murder while armed, a capital offense, McManus said. He said
Orleans-Lindsay has been arrested five times in the Washington area on
charges ranging from auto theft to narcotics trafficking. He is wanted on
paternity warrants.

In a plea bargain in June 1999, Orleans-Lindsay was convicted of two counts
of possession of cocaine, according to court documents. He was sentenced to
10 years for the first charge and four years for the second charge. The
sentence was suspended, and he was placed on three years of supervised
probation.

Yesterday, state troopers gathered with family members at Toatley's home, a
gray clapboard house amply festooned with Halloween decorations, in
Halethorpe, a suburb south of Baltimore. A uniformed trooper turned away
reporters at the door.

On Toatley's street, neighbors expressed shock at the death of a man who
was known in the area as charming and outgoing. DA"Every time he looked up,
he was all smiles: 'Hey, Joe. What's up? How ya doin'? How are you
feeling?' " said Joseph Foice, 40, a neighbor. "He asked me how I felt
because of my heart condition. He'd say, 'Don't worry. Things always work
out for the best.' "

State police declined to release a picture of the slain officer, fearing
that it would endanger his undercover partners.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) offered a $25,000 reward for information
leading to the arrest and conviction of Toatley's killer. That sum is in
addition to $10,000 offered by the state police and $1,000 by Washington
Metro Crime Stoppers.

The shooting appeared to be the first of an officer working with the
Baltimore-Washington Interdivisional Safe Streets Task Force, FBI officials
said.

"We've had people shot at. We can't recollect anybody who has been
seriously injured or killedD2C" said Special Agent Peter Gulotta, a
spokesman for the FBI's Baltimore field office.