Judge Denies Bond to 17-Year-Old Held In Connection with Brooklyn Homes Mass Shooting That Left Two Dead and 28 Wounded
Suspect Faces Five Charges, Including Three Weapons Possessions Counts, But Police Recovered No Weapon, and the Evidence Includes No Weapon.
By Gary Gately
The 17-year-old arrested in connection with the Brooklyn Homes mass shooting was denied bond Monday by a judge who cited “clear and convincing evidence the defendant would pose a risk to public safety.”
Baltimore District Court Judge Kent J. Boles Jr. cited charging documents, in which police said six rounds recovered at the scene could have been fired by a “rifle-caliber pistol” the teenage suspect pulled from his bag. Police drew that conclusion from a viral video showing a teen pulling what appeared to be a gun from his backpack.
The teen’s attorney, Michael Clinkscale, countered that the youth had only a toy gun that fires water gel beads and noted that while the charges against the teen include three possession of weapons counts, police have recovered no weapon. Boles acknowledged that the case against the teen includes no weapons as evidence.
Clinkscale said the teen had been wounded in the gunfire that erupted about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, July 2 at the Brooklyn Homes public housing complex in South Baltimore, killing two people and wounding 28 others, 23 of them teens.
The defense attorney asked Boles to place the teen on home detention or release him on his own recognizance.
But Brandon Jones, an assistant state’s attorney, warned against doing so, telling the judge: “This is an extremely serious case and the defendant poses an extreme threat to public safety.”
After the brief hearing, Clinkscale told reporters outside the courthouse that he plans to file a motion seeking to transfer the case to juvenile court.
The teen is a high school senior who lives with his mother near Brooklyn Homes, enjoys rap music and has no criminal record, Clinkscale said.
“He certainly has not committed any sort of violent crime,” Clinkscale said. “He has absolutely no prior criminal anything. He hasn’t even gotten a jaywalking ticket.
“It’s going to be a very significant challenge to determine that this young man even had possession of a gun — a handgun or otherwise — and we are going at them because they do not have the evidence to keep this young man held.”
Police arrested the youth at a Baltimore home Friday on charges of possession of a firearm by a minor, possession of an assault weapon, possession of a handgun in a vehicle and reckless endangerment. The Baltimore Police Department referred to him as one of “multiple suspects” in the shooting during the annual “Brooklyn Day” community celebration at Brooklyn Homes. But BPD has not alleged that he fired shots.
Police have faced fierce criticism for not responding to numerous reports of people with guns and knives and gunfire during the annual celebration by immediately dispatching a heavy contingent of officers to Brooklyn Homes.
The Baltimore City Council has scheduled a public hearing Thursday as it begins investigating how police and other public agencies responded to reports of people with weapons and gunfire during the annual celebration.
Phylicia Porter, the city councilwoman representing the people of Brooklyn Homes, has harshly criticized the police department, saying that the fact that no police officers had been on the scene when gunfire broke out represents “an immense systemic failure.”
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