Teen charged with firearm offenses related to Brooklyn shooting held without bond; attorney says gun was a toy
A 17-year-old charged with firearms offenses in connection with the mass shooting in South Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighborhood earlier this month was held without bail Monday.
The teen is not accused of shooting anybody at the boisterous block party that devolved into an apparent shootout that left two dead and 28 others wounded by gunfire — likely the highest casualty shooting in Baltimore history. The teen was one of the people injured by gunfire that night at the Brooklyn Homes public housing complex, according to his attorney.
Baltimore District Judge Kent J. Boles Jr. said he was concerned in the teen’s charging document that police said six rounds recovered at the scene could have been fired by the “rifle caliber pistol” the teen was seen holding in video circulated on social media. The charging document is shielded from public view because of the teen’s age.
Citing the allegations, Boles found there was “clear and convincing evidence the defendant would pose a risk to public safety” if released. The judge said police have not recovered the firearm they say the teen wielded.
“We don’t know if it’s a toy,” the teen’s attorney, Michael Clinkscale, said in court.
The teen is charged with possession of a firearm by a minor, reckless endangerment, possession of an assault weapon, having a handgun in a vehicle and on his person. He has not been convicted of a crime and didn’t have any other pending cases, an investigator with the Maryland Division of Pretrial Services and Detention said in court.
“This is an extremely serious case and the defendant poses an extreme threat to public safety,” Assistant State’s Attorney Brandon Jones said in court.
Police and prosecutors have not accused the teen with the “discharge of a weapon or any other serious crimes,” said Clinkscale, adding that his client would be amenable to house arrest or another form of release pending trial.
“These are not the types of charges that should” keep someone in custody, he said.
Outside of court, Clinkscale expanded on what he told the judge in interviews with reporters.
“We allege that what this young man had was an Orbeez gun,” said Clinkscale, referring to a toy firearm that ejects gel pellets. “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.”
Clinkscale said police wrote in charging documents that they found six .223-caliber cartridge casings in a “pool of blood” that “could have come from a weapon similar to what the young man had, but the police don’t have (the gun).”
Clinkscale said his client lived in the area of Brooklyn Homes, was slated to go into his senior year of high school and liked to sing and rap.
As of last week, investigators had collected cartridge casings fired by at least 12 different guns at the Brooklyn Homes crime scene, sources have told The Baltimore Sun.
Police have said there are multiple suspects but only have charged the 17-year-old so far.
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