Window-washing gone wrong puts Baltimore's squeegee workers back in the spotlight
BALTIMORE – A woman recently reported to police that she was assaulted by a squeegee worker while another worker attempted to snatch a purse from inside her car during a windshield washing gone wrong.
The woman, who did not want to be identified for security concerns, said she was driving with her elderly mother when she declined to have her windshield cleaned near the intersection of President Street and East Fayette Street on Friday.
That's when a group of youths surrounded their vehicle, prohibiting the driver from being able to move.
"I said, 'Mom, just get some money out of the purse. . . . Just please,' because we were stuck," the woman told WJZ. "We couldn't move. We were in traffic."
The woman said she took out a $5 bill to give to the group, but then one of the youths demanded more money and got physical.
"He said, 'Oh, you gotta give me more than that. . . . It's seven of us out here,'" the woman said. "He kept reaching and reaching. I was trying to fight his arm off and not have him hit my mother, and he sprayed whatever that solution was in my face, on my hair, on my clothes and then they ran off."
The victim said she and her 87-year-old mother are both still shaken up by the confrontation days later.
"I haven't had a decent night's sleep since that happened," she explained.
The woman reported the incident to the Baltimore Police Department. It was classified as an aggravated assault by the officer who recorded the details.
The driver said although law enforcement officers are often stationed at intersections throughout the city where squeegee washers are located, more needs to be done.
"It is illegal. Enforce it. Enforce the law," the woman pleaded.
Incidents involving windshield washers and drivers have continued to be reported to police in the more than three months since a deadly confrontation at the foot of the Inner Harbor, an issue the city continues to grapple with.
More recently, this includes an incident in Bolton Hill involving two squeegee workers and a federal judge who is currently overseeing Baltimore's police reforms under the consent decree.
On Monday, the attorney for the 15-year-old suspect charged in the shooting death of Timothy Reynolds in July announced a plea deal rejection.
The plea deal offered last week gave the suspect the option to spend 60 years in prison if he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, according to attorney J. Wyndal Gordon.
"The next step is to try to convince a judge to have this matter transferred to juvenile court," criminal defense attorney Warren Brown said. "It doesn't make light of the loss of life of Mr. Reynolds but what it does say is that the law recognizes that at a certain age, whether you were involved in a murder or not, you have the right to have that tried in juvenile court and not face the significant consequences of being tried in adult court."
WJZ reached out to Reynolds' family attorney for comment about the plea deal rejection, but so far has not heard back from that person.
The Baltimore Police Department was unable to list the number of reports involving squeegee washers from July 7 to Oct. 24 by Monday evening.