Teenage squeegee worker found guilty of manslaughter in fatal shooting of bat-wielding man in Baltimore

BALTIMORE — A Baltimore jury on Thursday found a 16-year-old guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a man who confronted a group of squeegee workers with a baseball bat last July.

In acquitting the teen of first- and second-degree murder, the jury found that he acted in partial defense of himself or others when he gunned down Timothy Reynolds at the bustling intersection of East Conway and Light streets on July 7, 2022.

“It was not an easy determination,” one juror, who declined to be identified because of safety concerns, told The Baltimore Sun. But after going through “all the evidence carefully,” jurors agreed that the teen’s claims of self defense or defense of others mitigated the shooting, the juror said. “It was both protecting himself and protecting other people.”

The jury’s verdict brings closer to a conclusion the criminal case stemming from the shooting that reignited a longstanding debate over what Baltimore should do about the people, mostly young Black men, who wash windshields for quick cash. Scores of observers packed a marble-lined courtroom in Baltimore Circuit Court for the teen’s three-day trial, which featured racial, socioeconomic and political undertones.

At trial, the prosecution argued that the teen was guilty of premeditated murder because he grabbed a crossbody bag — which police later found with a handgun in it — and pulled a mask over his face before he shot Reynolds five times. The defense countered that the shooter only opened fire in defense of an “unprovoked attack” from a grown man armed with anger toward squeegee workers and a metal bat.

Defense attorney Warren Brown said he felt “pretty good” about the verdict, considering prosecutors offered his client a plea deal to second-degree murder and asked the jury to convict him of premeditated killing.

“He didn’t go looking for trouble, it was brought to him,” defense attorney Warren Brown said after the verdict. “And maybe he didn’t act the way an adult would’ve acted, but he was 14 at the time.”

The Sun is not naming the teen because he’s a minor.

His lawyers plan to argue for the case to be transferred to juvenile court for sentencing and, separately, to appeal the circuit court judge’s original decision to have the case remain in adult court. Brown said the defense was “optimistic” on both fronts.

In adult court, manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The jury also found the teen guilty of being a minor in possession of a firearm, a misdemeanor punishable by up to five years’ incarceration, and with the use of a firearm in a crime of violence, a felony with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled yet.

Sentences in juvenile court emphasize rehabilitation rather than punishment. There is no set timeline for penalties imposed there, but the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services loses jurisdiction over the youth sentenced when they turn 21.

When considering whether to transfer a case to juvenile court for sentencing, state law says a judge must consider the age of the youth, their mental and physical condition, their willingness to receive treatment, the nature of the crimes and public safety — the same factors a previous judge considered when deciding the teen should be tried as an adult.

In November, ahead of the hearing to determine which court would have jurisdiction over the teen’s case, Reynolds’ family pushed back on a plea deal offered by former State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby that would’ve seen the case resolved in juvenile court.

Their attorney, Thiru Vignarajah, said after the verdict Thursday that “there are no winners in cases like this.”

“The family knew from the very beginning that nothing that happens in the courtroom was ever going to bring Tim Reynolds back,” Vignarajah said. “The person who was responsible for his murder has been convicted of killing him, and that brings a small measure of closure and justice to this family, which is what they’ve always wanted.”

Reynolds’ relatives crammed into the small courtroom where the jury rendered its verdict wearing pins bearing his picture. His widow closed her eyes and pressed her hands together, seemingly silent in prayer.

Nearby sat the defendant’s loved ones, waiting for 12 people to enter the courtroom and announce his fate. The teen sat next to Brown and stared ahead, dressed in the same dark-gray suit he donned during trial.

The jury filed out after reading the verdict. One juror, a woman, was in tears as she left the courtroom Thursday. She looked at the teen and mouthed “I’m sorry.”

Jurors began deliberations after closing arguments Monday afternoon. By Tuesday, the jury indicated it was struggling to reach a consensus. Deliberations paused Wednesday when a juror called out sick, and resumed Thursday morning. In sum, the jury considered the case for about two days.

Among the evidence they were tasked with reviewing was video of the shooting and an initial encounter between Reynolds and the squeegee workers when he pulled up to the stoplight at East Conway and Light.

Closed-circuit TV camera footage showed squeegee workers darting in and out of traffic looking for a windshield to clean long before Reynolds’ Volkswagen SUV pulled up. Shortly after he arrived, a squeegee worker walked away and the defendant leaned against Reynolds’ car. As Reynolds drove away when the light turned green, the teen, who was wearing a pink shirt, ran to grab a crossbody bag that was sitting on the curb.

A motorist’s dashboard camera picked up after Reynolds crossed about 10 lanes of traffic on Light Street. He was holding a baseball bat and walking away.

Three squeegee workers followed Reynolds, who turned toward them, the video showed. They backed up when he charged with the bat raised over his head. He swung the bat in the direction of a worker. Another worker threw an object at Reynolds, hitting him in the head. He appeared to stumble. That’s when the teen shot Reynolds five times.

Bullets tore into Reynolds’ face, neck and back. He died at the hospital.

Weeks later, police arrested a teen in Reynolds’ killing. He turned 15 the day after the shooting.

“14 is not a free pass for murder,” Assistant State’s Attorney Cynthia Banks told jurors in closing arguments.

During testimony, Banks walked witnesses through what they saw step by step and showed them video footage frame by frame, slowing down the deadly encounter for jurors to bolster her argument of premeditation. In closing arguments, she also said the teen failed his legal duty to retreat before resorting to gunfire.

“When she slows that video down, she is misleading, because this thing happened rapidly,” Brown said in closing arguments, later adding: “We’re talking about 60 seconds from the time [Reynolds] walks across the street to when he’s shot.”

Throughout the trial, Brown and co-counsel J. Wyndal Gordon sought to shift blame away from their client, who is Black, to Reynolds, who was white. They said Reynolds approached the squeegee workers in menacing fashion and with malicious intent. Though it didn’t come in at trial, tweets from an account in Reynolds’ name reflected negative experiences with, and opinions of, squeegee workers.

“They don’t live in neighborhoods where they can mow lawns,” Brown said, accusing investigators of focusing only on his client and his peers, who he called “these kids.” “So they’re hustling. But it’s good hustling.”

Although two people witnessed the shooting, neither could identify the shooter — either in early interviews with police or during their testimony at the teen’s trial.

To identify the defendant as the shooter in court, the prosecution relied on an officer who had regular encounters with the teen and other squeegee workers to identify him as the person who shot Reynolds based on the video. That officer’s body camera captured an interaction with the teen three days before the shooting.

DNA analysis excluded the teen as a potential source of genetic matter taken from the gun, but identified him as one of three people whose DNA came from the strap of the crossbody bag inside which police later found the gun, a Baltimore police DNA expert testified. Detectives described the bag as a “community” bag, saying several squeegee workers shared it.

A police firearms examiner testified that the shell casings recovered at the scene were “consistent” with having been fired by the handgun investigators found in the bag.