66-year-old Baltimore man followed from the casino, shot for his winnings, wife says
Elizabeth Buckner said her husband, Clarence, had just won big playing slots at the Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, and the couple planned to have dinner together at home Sunday.
Clarence Buckner had taken a seat at the table when his wife went to check the mail. That’s when an armed man grabbed her and walked her back into the home, demanding money from her husband before fatally shooting him, she said.
“This wasn’t right,” Buckner said. “He was a giving, loving man.”
Police said they believe Buckner was targeted in a robbery at his home on 3300 Rueckert Ave. in Northeast Baltimore. Investigators have not yet made an arrest and the department has not released any suspect information.
“He grabbed me and told me ‘you got 20 seconds’,” Elizabeth Buckner recalled in an interview Tuesday.
“‘I followed him from the casino, I know he had the money,’” she said the gunman said.
Buckner said her husband gave the gunman what he had in his pocket, but he demanded more.
Buckner said her husband managed to distract the gunman and she was able to break free and run to a neighbor’s house.
By the time she got to the house, she said she heard a shot. Buckner said her neighbor called 911 and the neighbor urged her to stay.
“I said I got to go back and make sure he’s OK,” she said.
Buckner went back into the house to find her husband sprawled on the floor of their living room.
“I just kept asking ‘Baby, wake up, say something,’” she said. “He never moved.”
Police arrived and whisked her from the home.
Buckner said her husband had retired from Baltimore City Public Schools where he had worked as a cafeteria chef, most recently at City Springs Elementary School in East Baltimore.
Between them, she said they had 12 children, 25 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, with whom he loved to spend time.
Buckner said her husband loved to gamble, and regularly went to Horseshoe on Sundays. He had a habit of posting his winnings on Facebook, she said. He often spent his winnings on jewelry, but also gifts for others.
Buckner is one of 36 people killed so far this year. Police said they have made arrests in two of the homicides, but the rest remain open.
A week earlier, 51-year-old Cheryl McCormack, was fatally shot in an attempted robbery in the 3900 block of White Ave., also in Northeast Baltimore, while working for a delivery service.
Police also continue to investigate the killing of Chesley Patterson, a 44-year-old restaurant general manager killed on Eastern Avenue in Fells Point, and James Blue, the husband of a Baltimore Police internal affairs investigator who was killed on Walker Avenue in Northeast waiting for a refrigerator delivery.
Baltimore Sun reporter Emily Opilo contributed to this article.
