17-Year-Old Teen Faces 40 Years in Prison for Fatal BP Gas Station Shooting

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A 17-year-old teenager, who was charged as an adult in a fatal shooting outside a BP gas station last year is expected to serve 40 years in prison after counsel agreed to a plea offer on May 17.

Shamar Carter, who was 16 when the shooting occurred, was scheduled for a jury trial on Wednesday morning before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge John Howard. However, prosecution and defense attorneys Robert Linthicum and Megan Lewis continued negotiating until reaching an agreement in the late morning.

The plea agreement includes life, suspending all but 40 years, and five years of supervised probation for first-degree murder and a concurrent 15 years, the first five years without parole, for firearm use in a felony violent crime. Carter will also be required to register as a gun offender. There is a recommendation to hold him at the Patuxent Institute, a treatment-oriented maximum-security facility in Jessup, Md.

In addition to the aforementioned charges, Carter was also facing two other weapons charges.

Defense counsel requested a delayed sentencing to accommodate Carter’s family, which was scheduled for Aug. 17.

According to the prosecution, 34-year-old Bernard Tillman was walking in the gas station’s parking lot on the 2800 block of Edmondson Avenue on June 1, 2022, when Carter walked up to him. As the victim walked away, the defendant pulled out a gun and opened fire on Tillman, shooting the victim six times.

Video surveillance footage showed the victim taking a gun out of his right pocket, court documents state.

Linthicum said, during the proceeding, that it appeared Tillman attempted to fire at Carter, but his gun jammed.

Baltimore Police Department ((BPD) officers in the area heard the gunshots and arrived at the scene to see Carter running away with a gun in his right hand. Officers ran after Carter and caught him in the area of W. Franklin Street and N. Franklintown Road.

Medics with the Baltimore City Fire Department pronounced Tillman dead at the scene.

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