The FBI’s investigation into a Baltimore City police officer’s shooting of an unarmed man is a rare move for the federal agency here, law enforcement officials said.

Richard Wolf, spokesman for the FBI’s Baltimore City office, said his agency has not investigated a police-involved shooting in the city for at least three years — and possibly much longer. And past city police commissioners say they cannot recall another such investigation occurring recently.

The FBI has “very rarely in the past, probably no more than three or four times in the last 30 years,” said former Baltimore Police Commissioner Bert Shirey, a 38-year veteran of the department.

“I don’t recall any Baltimore police officer ever being charged criminally.”

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Former Baltimore Police Commissioner Ed Norris said he remembers no such investigation occurring during his tenure from 2000 to 2002.

Shirey said the Baltimore FBI rarely opens cases on police shootings because the city’s homicide unit does a good job with its investigation.

“In Baltimore, if anything, they probably overwork these cases,” Shirey said.

“We’ve had a few controversial shootings over the years. They’re all unpleasant. They’re all difficult. These guys make a split-second decision. Decisions can be second-guessed by everybody.”

Last week, the FBI confirmed that agents had opened an investigation into the killing of Edward Lamont Hunt, 27, who witnesses say was frisked then shot twice in the back Jan. 30 at a shopping plaza in Northeast Baltimore.

Police Officer Tommy Sanders told detectives he had not completed his interrogation of Hunt when Hunt pulled away, prompting the officer to fire out of fear, according to law enforcement sources.

Baltimore City police have shot and killed three people this year. Last year, officers shot 31 people, killing 13.

lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com