Families of 2 Maryland shooting victims sue ankle monitoring company used on suspect
The families of two teens killed in a shooting in Maryland near The Mall in Columbia are suing a specialist monitoring company responsible for supervising the suspected killer, they announced Thursday.
The lawsuit, filed by the Law Office of David Ellin in Reisterstown, claims home detention monitoring company Advantage Sentencing Alternative Programs Inc. (ASAP) failed to properly supervise Emmetson Zeah, 18.
"The company's negligence created an unacceptable and foreseeable risk," attorney David Ellin said in a news release.
WJZ has reached out to ASAP for a response to the lawsuit, but has not yet heard back.
12 counts of negligence
More than 10 months after Michael Robertson, 16, and Blake McCray, 15, were shot and killed, their families are turning their grief into a lawsuit against ASAP.
The lawsuit contends ASAP failed to monitor and supervise Zeah, who was wearing a court-ordered GPS ankle monitor from ASAP the night Robertson and McCray were shot.
Zeah was out on bail for charges related to a home invasion and attempted stabbing case from November 2024.
Police tied Zeah to the shooting by tracking his ankle monitor, according to charging documents. Zeah's movements pinned him to the area of the shooting when it happened.
That data also showed Zeah had violated the conditions of his release on multiple days. It also tracked him to the scene of another shooting in Columbia on Feb. 14 on Twin Rivers Road.
The lawsuit also claims ASAP didn't report the violations promptly, as it's required to do.
Zeah's mother, Margaret Nyorkor, is also named in the lawsuit. It claims Nyorkor even drove Zeah to the mall on the night of the shooting.
Ellin said his firm's investigation found this may not be an isolated incident with ASAP, also saying the lawsuit is a message to all home monitoring companies.
"This isn't a situation where if a mistake is made, someone loses ten dollars. If a mistake is made, this is about as serious as it gets," he said. "I mean, you can cost someone their life, and in this situation, two lives were lost."
Jeremy Eldridge, another one of the family's attorneys, said the other hope with the lawsuit is it inspires reform.
"We do not have uniformity statewide as to how home detention companies privately operate within the county. Howard County is one of the few jurisdictions that does not actually have a pre-trial services unit that could offer what I would call the public option on detention," Eldridge said.
The deadly double shooting
Zeah is facing charges in the shooting deaths of Robertson and McCray.
The shooting occurred near a bus stop outside of Lidl at the mall.
Robertson was already dead by the time police arrived at the shooting scene. McCray was taken to a hospital, where he died days later.
"This was not an accident, and it was preventable," McCray's mother, Marshay Eaddy, said Thursday. "It was the result of negligence and lack of urgency by the monitoring company, ASAP."
While holding a frame filled with pictures of her son, Eaddy said she really lucked out with him. She talked about the pain she and her family still wrestle with to this day.
"Me and my son, my community, were innocent victims of this carelessness. We were failed by a system that was supposed to keep us safe," she said.
Zeah is scheduled to stand trial for charges from this shooting in January.
ASAP's license suspended
In June, Maryland suspended ASAP's operational license, claiming it failed to notify authorities of violations by Zeah.
One day before the shooting, ASAP shared a letter with court officials that detailed several pre-trial detention infractions by Zeah during that week. The update showed that Zeah should have been home, according to the letter, but instead was on local school grounds, at other people's homes, the mall and other businesses.
The state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) ordered ASAP to pay a $1,000 fine and $250 for each of the six days after that, according to the letter.
