Baltimore Officer Recalls Hearing Gunfire on Night of Fatal Shooting

By Andrew Michaels - November 30, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A Baltimore Police Department patrol officer recalled hearing gunfire the night 26-year-old Sharif Stewart was murdered during his testimony in a homicide trial on Nov. 29.

Rickie Louis Young, a 20-year-old Baltimore resident, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and an additional count of firearm use in a felony violent crime in connection to Stewart’s death on Nov. 7, 2020. According to the Maryland Judiciary website, two codefendants, Aaron Millward and Devin Shadle, were allegedly involved and also charged in the fatal shooting.

On Monday afternoon, a southwest district patrol officer, who is a three-year veteran with the police department said he was working a night shift in the Washington Boulevard area, which he said is known as a “high crime area.”

The officer said he was driving around in his patrol car around 3 a.m. and made a right onto Whistler Avenue when he saw a group of six to seven men, one of whom was wearing a bright orange hoodie. When asked why they were out at that time of night, the officer said, the men said they were going home.

Following their brief interaction, the officer testified that he proceeded to Carroll Street where he conducted a traffic stop. The officer then called for backup, he said, as is routine at that time of night in an area with high crime.

Shortly after, the officer said he saw the individual in the bright orange hoodie and another person walking on the right-hand side of Whistler Avenue.

The officer said he and other officers at the traffic stop then received a call about an incident nearby and heard gunshots while on the phone with officers near the scene of the homicide. He testified that they immediately ended the traffic stop and went to Carroll Street, where he saw a man standing outside of a black Honda Crosstour and an officer rendering aid to another man, later identified as Stewart, on the driver’s side.

Assuming he was the primary officer, the officer said, he got information from the man who was sitting in the car with Stewart when he was shot as well as others who were at the scene.

A homicide detective also testified on Monday said he identified Stewart as the victim and acted as the police department’s liaison with the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office.

Earlier in the day, defense attorney Amy Stone said in her opening statements that Young was not guilty and did not commit any of the charges. Stone said the prosecution’s case was based solely on Young’s presence in the area on the night of the shooting.

“I say, ‘somewhere,’ because where [Young] was is arguable, not exact, not 100% certain,” Stone said.

Meanwhile, the prosecution said Young was one of three men responsible for Stewart’s death. The prosecutor said Stewart and another man were smoking in a car when Stewart was shot twice in the back.

Shell casings were found both in front of and behind the car, she said.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry G. Williams is presiding over the trial, which continued on Nov. 30.