A year after the Brooklyn mass shooting in South Baltimore, changes but no closure
A year after what is likely Baltimore’s largest mass shooting, little resolution has come from the criminal justice system.
On the day marking one year since he was shot in his yard at Brooklyn Homes, Anthony Wicks will honor the ones who didn’t survive.
He plans to tie a ribbon around a hackberry tree planted in memory of 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez, who was shot to death July 2, 2023, along with 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi. Twenty-eight others, including Wicks, were wounded as gunfire transformed a neighborhood party into a sprawling and chaotic crime scene.
For Wicks, Tuesday coincides with other grim reminders, coming just days before the anniversary of his brother’s death and a few months after he lost his mother this May.
“It’s like trauma building on trauma, like a snowball effect,” Wicks, 40, said. He also said officials who promised they would help him pay his bills after the shooting didn’t follow through.
But on an afternoon in June, he saw signs of hope. He pointed to a few children, like his daughter, Myracle, who were bold enough to venture outside to play.
“The kids just started coming back,” he said. “It’s kind of good to see kids outside.”
A year after Baltimore’s largest mass shooting, little resolution has come from the criminal justice system. The two homicides remain unsolved and some residents — and attorneys who represented several teenagers charged with lesser crimes — are skeptical anyone will be charged with murder.
Meanwhile, Baltimore Police have taken some steps toward addressing their flawed response, including strengthening officers’ presence in the community and relationships with residents. But questions remain about how comprehensive the solutions are.
Doubts about the justice system and the city’s response have left residents, whose grief and trauma linger, turning elsewhere.
“For Black people, it’s just another story. It’s not closure,” said Rejina Douglas, a Brooklyn Homes resident.
Douglas called the mass shooting an “eye-opener” for her in terms of gun violence, but said she’s ready to look ahead to find ways to keep children, like her 7-year-old son, Carter, safe.
In interviews with more than a dozen people who live in the Brooklyn Homes development, many described positive changes in the neighborhood.
Housing authority security guards now patrol the complex, which is under the management of new staff. Baltimore Police, who were faulted for “officer indifference” in their response to the event, are more visible, some said. Recently, some residents have finally become comfortable sitting outside again.
For Douglas, who works for Job Corps helping teenagers, seeing more police officers and housing security has made a difference.
“This guy isn’t going to pull out a gun and shoot this person because he’s mad about a drug deal going wrong,” she said.
Since Brooklyn Day, when she said police reacted too slowly, she has developed a good relationship with a particular officer. She said he patiently responded to an issue months ago, staying to talk and provide information even though the call could have been addressed via the city’s 311 nonemergency system. “If there’s more guys like him, put them all on the street,” she said.
‘A battle zone’
Two of the defense attorneys involved in the cases of the teenagers charged in nonfatal shootings that night don’t think police will be able to charge anyone with homicide.
Of five teens accused of participating in the chaotic shootout, four pleaded guilty to varying roles. None admitted shooting anyone, despite four being charged with attempted murder.
The prosecution’s evidence included black-and-white CCTV footage from the housing complex, as well as cartridge casings that police linked to guns later confiscated from the defendants. Describing the video as showing “mayhem,” attorney Warren Brown didn’t think it would help a murder case.
“It was a battle zone down there, so it’s difficult to connect one person to a person being shot,” said Brown, whose client, a minor, pleaded guilty to assault. “Even in our cases, it went from attempted murder to first-degree assault because they couldn’t prove they were shooting at any one person.”
Roya Hanna, who represented a teen who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, said the case lacks witnesses. The footage mostly showed a large crowd, she said. Sometimes, you could pick out a person with distinctive clothing, but you couldn’t see whether they held something.
“The police department relies much more heavily on forensics and video than they used to, which sometimes is a good thing. But they’ve gotten away from witness interviews. Relationships with the community are more important in cases like this,” Hanna said.
“The video only goes so far,” she added. “And in a case like this — where you’re going to need to be able to establish who fired first in order to get beyond attempted murder of ‘unknown’ — you’re going to have to tell the story: ‘So and so fired at so and so because of this.’ That’s why witnesses are important, because they can give that backstory.”
Brown believes the lack of witnesses comes down to the chaos that ensued after gunfire erupted — “People are ducking, dodging, keeping their head down,” he said.
Hanna and Brown said someone could come forward with new information, particularly if they’re arrested in another crime and want leverage to benefit their circumstances. It’s also possible, they said, that police later confiscate one of the at least 12 guns used in the shootout.
Brown said Fagbemi and Gonzalez appeared to be caught in the crossfire. “People just started shooting randomly,” he said. “I don’t even think the people responsible for the deaths even know they were responsible.”
Baltimore Police said the investigation remains active and that they’re working with law enforcement partners as “new information and/or evidence emerges.”
James Bentley, a spokesman for the Office of the State’s Attorney, said prosecutors and investigators “continue to examine all angles.”
Life without justice
Rashon Shelbourne just gained back the 17 pounds he lost after his younger sister, Gonzalez, was killed last year. The 21-year-old moved from New Jersey to Maryland to support his grieving family. He described his life split into two pieces: the before and the after.
As Aaliyah’s brother, he wants her shooter caught. But “it’s just not realistic.”
“Nothing would make me any happier than them finding Aaliyah’s shooter, believe me,” he said. “That’s when I would get peace of mind. Until then, it’s going to be hard to find peace of mind.”
His mother, Krystal Gonzalez, can’t focus on the investigation or the plea deals.
“No matter what happens, it will never be justice for me. Aaliyah will never return. Nothing will ever change that,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve got to figure out a better way to live, which is focusing on honoring Aaliyah’s life and legacy, focusing on changing the culture — that’s it. Focusing on changing the laws that are in place — that’s it. Everything else? It doesn’t move me, because it will never be justice for me.”
Aaliyah’s family will host a celebration Tuesday in her honor in Sawmill Creek Park in Glen Burnie. Gonzalez said the festival will include basketball tournaments, performances, food trucks and ice cream.
Brown, the defense attorney, said closure for community members and victims may have to come from re-imagining who is culpable. He cited police officers’ indifference in responding to Brooklyn Homes as they received reports of a rapidly growing crowd, including armed people.
“These two people who lost their lives, that was a result of the ineptitude of the police department, because if they had been out there, I doubt seriously the mayhem would’ve ensued,” Brown said. “We’re searching for the actual shooters, but an inordinate amount of attention and blame ought to be laid at the police department.”
The families of Gonzalez and Fagbemi intend to sue the city for its mismanagement of the Brooklyn Day party. For Gonzalez, Baltimore failed in managing resources for police and in hiring enough officers.
She also said penalties for violent crimes should be stricter.
“We are in the same place today that we were July 2, 2023,” she said. “Nothing has changed.”
Officer indifference
Police department brass said at a June 5 City Council hearing that an internal investigation into actions leading up to and during Brooklyn Day was complete and with a civilian committee that reviews cases and issues disciplinary findings. The department plans to publicly release the results.
The officials had less definitive answers when pressed by Democratic Councilwoman Odette Ramos on how they’ve changed training or policies since an internal after-action report last year found “officer indifference” contributed to the mishandling of Brooklyn Day.
Commissioner Richard Worley expressed doubt the department could rid the force “100%” of indifference, saying it might be impossible for some people.
“Then they shouldn’t be police officers,” Ramos replied.
In an interview, Ramos said she is concerned the department does not have a process to root out indifference as it does for bias — which she fears could result in officers dodging accountability.
“If they’re going to use the word indifference, figuring out how to address indifference has to be a priority, and I don’t think that they’ve done that,” she said.
The department has taken steps in the past year to prioritize community policing. Worley created a Community Policing Section and issued a memo in April restating that all officers are community policing officers, not just the “neighborhood coordination officers.” His team also hopes to carve out more time for NCOs to focus on problem-oriented policing goals and diversify who attends community meetings.
The agency underwent an already-scheduled redistricting shortly after Brooklyn Day to more evenly divide workloads across police posts. The after-action report identified that the post that included Brooklyn Homes was among the busiest in the city and left one officer responsible for a “significantly higher volume of workload.” The neighborhood is now within three post areas, allowing officers to bolster engagement with the community, the department said, adding that it has seen a 36% decrease there in violent crime this year.
Police spokeswoman Lindsey Eldridge said in a statement that the department’s equity office is assisting in training to address “officer indifference and bias.”
“The department is committed to ensure officers protect and serve all communities of Baltimore with equity and respect and uphold the mission of the department,” Eldridge said.
‘A long path’
Lisa Rivers remembers the Ku Klux Klan burning crosses in 1967 outside her home when her family was the first Black one to move into the Brooklyn Homes complex.
She’s since moved, but her daughter, Shervawn Boone, lives in the complex where she was raised. Not for long, she hopes. Since her 16-year-old son, Cormar Askins, was killed earlier this year in Cherry Hill, she has been looking for a house.
“Once I buy that house, I won’t be in nobody’s projects,” Boone said. “I would never step foot back in Brooklyn. Not for any reason.”
William Haines, too, decided to leave Brooklyn for good. Haines moved to Cherry Hill Homes, another public housing complex, in February.
“It was fine and dandy after the shooting for like a week, but after that I couldn’t do it,” Haines said. He said security guards did little to curb drug dealing and he had issues with the rental office. “I just had to get the hell out.”
Residents have processed the shooting differently, according to Michelle Rich, who works with the community organization Greater Baybrook Alliance and has organized a food distribution within Brooklyn Homes. Some are traumatized, while for others, “it was just another day,” Rich said.
Not all residents trust those who offer help: “They’ve been hurt a lot,” she said. “There’s so much they deserve and need.”
In the aftermath of the mass shooting, Brooklyn residents cried out for resources and described themselves as forgotten by elected officials.
Democratic City Councilwoman Phylicia Porter, who represents the area, said 60 Brooklyn stakeholders, faith leaders, community organizations and residents developed a “community vision” and she pointed to a new grocery store at Hanover and Potee streets as an example of it coming to fruition.
“The pain of what happened last year with that tragedy is still raw for many of the families living in Brooklyn, but I am optimistic for it,” Porter said.
Mark Mason, victim services associate director for the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, has helped lead stabilization efforts in the wake of the mass shooting. That’s meant stakeholder meetings and responding to resident concerns, such as creating resource fairs and establishing lunch groups for affected students.
The former teacher and administrator at nearby Baybrook Elementary and Middle School said healing would be a “long path.” But he’s seen greater community confidence in city government and more collaboration coming out of the tragedy.
“What that community has experienced, it’s not something that, honestly, is going to go away even after a year,” Mason said.
He worked with residents and community organizations on a Brooklyn Healing and Wellness Event for Tuesday.
Others plan to mark the milestone in different ways.
Tonya Williams, Fagbemi’s neighbor, said she plans to set up photos, candles and balloons outside the Gretna Court apartment where Fagbemi lived with his mother.
Wicks, the shooting victim, plans to place something to honor Gonzalez at the tree planted in her memory. The hackberry in June was dry and nearly branchless, but it stood upright, a tuft of green leaves near the top.