Defense Alleges Baltimore Police Didn’t Fully Investigate Fatal Shooting that Killed 21-Year-Old Man

By Andrew Michaels - December 10, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

Defense counsel for a man accused of homicide alleged that the Baltimore Police Department did not fully investigate the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Davron Dorsey in June 2019.

Tracy Jones, who had just turned 16 at the time of the shooting, is charged with first-degree murder in connection to the incident on the 3100 block of W. Belvedere Avenue in the Pimlico Good Neighbors on June 27, 2019. He is also facing charges of firearm use in a felony violent crime, having a handgun on his person, and possession of a firearm as a minor.

During opening statements on Dec. 9, the prosecution informed the jury that Dorsey was sitting outside the Ez-Shop Grocery store around 9 p.m. when Jones, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans with rips in the knees, allegedly drove by on a fat tire bike. About 20 minutes later, she said, Jones rode back to the area on his bike wearing different clothes, stopped underneath a video surveillance camera, and shot Dorsey twice.

“The defendant clearly set out to execute Davron Dorsey,” the prosecutor said. “We don’t know the motive and we don’t need to know the motive.”

Defense attorney Michael Tomko said he would provide the jury with his own “roadmap” throughout the trial, focusing on the police department’s investigation. Two people who allegedly witnessed the shooting were not interviewed by police, Tomko explained, and a murder weapon was never found.

“You will be left to guess who [the shooter] was,” he told the jury.

Tomko explored the police department’s investigation during the testimony of an officer in the Northwest district who arrived at the scene soon after the shooting. The officer’s body camera footage was played in court and showed several people in the area.

The officer told the prosecution that there was a woman who was with the victim and visibly upset but did not want to cooperate with police. He said he had seen the woman in the area before as she was always “hanging out” on the 5100 block of Park Heights, which intersects with W. Belvedere Avenue.

“She didn’t want to talk. I’m guessing she knew the victim. She was a little upset,” the officer testified.

During cross-examination, Tomko questioned whether he or any detectives followed up with the woman in addition to a business owner who the officer said was complaining about many shootings in the area. The officer testified that he did not interview either potential witness nor did he write a report.

The officer noted that his job was to collect information and share it with the primary officer—the officer who arrived first at the scene—which he did. This included retrieving video surveillance from the Ez-Shop Grocery.

Two cartridge casings located about 10 feet apart and a light gray hat were found at the scene, according to the testimony of a crime lab technician. The witness said she briefly reviewed the grocery store’s video surveillance and saw that the suspect did not touch or leave anything.

A forensic pathologist with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner also testified on Thursday, saying she performed the autopsy on Dorsey, whose cause of death was ruled a homicide due to gunshot wounds. The witness said Dorsey had a grazed gunshot wound on the left side of his head and a gunshot wound to his back.

The gunshot wound to Dorsey’s mid to lower-back traveled from the back to front, left to right, and upward, she said, causing damage to his spine, lungs, and the aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body. The victim had over a liter of blood loss in his body cavity, the witness testified.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Videtta A. Brown is presiding over the trial, which continued on Dec. 10.