Baltimore City to lead hearing to discuss if gas station where man killed is 'public nuisance'
BALTIMORE - Baltimore City has set up a public hearing to discuss whether a Northeast Baltimore gas station, where a man was killed last week, is a public nuisance.
Albert Stevenson, 56, was murdered in a shooting at a BP gas station on Havenwood Road near Morgan State.
The public hearing is on January 25th at 9 a.m. at Baltimore Police Headquarters.
"This is just the beginning," Stevenson's nephew Jamar Day said. "Now it's time to pack out the hearing on January 25 at City Hall."
Day put together a rally last weekend in front of the business, calling for it to be shut down.
He said his uncle was inside the store to buy cigarettes when he was shot in the head.
He was laid to rest on Wednesday.
"This is not only a hearing to shut down the gas station, it's a hearing about public safety and crime in Baltimore," Day said. "I think that's something that concerns every citizen in Baltimore."
According to the notice, BPD can close a business or put a "padlock" on it after there are two criminal incidents there within two years.
The notice sent to the gas station said there have been six there in the last 22 months involving violent crimes or drugs. Police said they've also found guns there.
WJZ spoke to several people who live in this community.
"This neighborhood is coming back and that needs to go," Jacqueline Frierson of Baltimore said.
WJZ got a mixed reaction
"I don't think the gas station needs to be shut down," Michael, from Baltimore, said. "I think the police need to come around here more often because it's convenient for the people who come around here."
No arrests have been made in Stevenson's murder yet.
As police search for the killers, his family will continue to fight to get the gas station shut down.
"I don't want to say that my uncle's death had this wheel in motion," Day said. "I want to say a community that's been fighting for this for decades has done this. I think this was just the icing on the cake."
WJZ stopped at the gas station to talk to the owner Wednesday, but he was not available.
