Teen squeegee worker indicted on murder charges in fatal shooting
BALTIMORE -- A grand jury has indicted a 15-year-old squeegee worker accused of shooting and killing a driver who confronted a group with a bat last month in downtown Baltimore, the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office said Tuesday.
The teen faces eight adult, felony charges that could land him in prison for life in the death of Timothy Reynolds at Light and Conway streets last month.
The teen's attorneys have said the case should be tried in juvenile court, and that the shooting is not first-degree murder, but the indictment means the case will stay in adult courts.
"We had hoped that they would have declined charging him with first-degree," said attorney Warren Brown.
if found guilty, the teen could face a lifetime behind bars
Brown said trying him as an adult isn't right considering he was 14 at the time of the shooting.
"Fourteen, no problems in the system before this came to him," he said. "The problem came to him and maybe we can be judgmental as to how he reacted to that problem, but he didn't create the problem, the problem came to him."
On July 7, police said, 48-year-old Timothy Reynolds got into some sort of altercation with a group of squeegee workers downtown, pulling his car over and approaching the group of young men on foot with a bat.
But court documents revealed as Reynolds is walking away, three young men follow him, throw a rock at his head, and a suspect wearing a black mask covering his face shoots Reynolds and runs away.
"He's definitely not a violent person," the teen's best friend told WJZ.
The teen suspect, who WJZ isn't naming due to his age, is also charged with assault and possession of a handgun. But his mother and best friend said he never had a gun.
Brown is now fighting for the case to be tried in juvenile court.
"Where do we try this thing?" Brown asked. "In the adult system where this 14-year-old faces spending the rest of his life in prison? Or in the juvenile system where they can hold him until he's 21?"
The teen suspect spoke with a WJZ over the phone on Monday sand said he is innocent.
