Grandmother Describes Watching Defendant ‘Open Fire’ on Her Granddaughter’s Home

By Andrew Michaels - October 7, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects |

A grandmother of a non-fatal shooting victim recalled standing 20 feet away from her granddaughter’s front doorstep earlier this year, watching a 19-year-old defendant open fire on the house.

The Penn North man accused of the shooting began his jury trial Friday morning.

The shooting was “all over a stupid argument he had no stake in,” the prosecutor said during her opening statements. “It could’ve been an absolute tragedy. It could’ve been worse.”

On March 5, the grandmother said she and a few other family members travelled from Philadelphia to Baltimore City to visit the victim after she was “jumped by several girls” and injured. The family learned the victim also recently had a fight with a friend who was living with her. This led the victim to kick her friend out of her house on the 5100 block of Woolverton Avenue.

The victim’s grandmother told the jury that she was walking to move her car around 2 a.m., outside of her granddaughter’s house, when she saw three women—including the victim’s friend whom she recognized—and the male defendant pull up in a car outside the home. The group remained outside as they proceeded to “bust out windows” on the first and second floors with crowbars.

“He was just standing there until he pulled his gun out and started firing at the house,” the grandmother said. “I was in shock.”

The four individuals then drove away.

The victim, her three-year-old daughter, and a couple of other family members were inside the house at the time of the shooting. No one was injured.

Defense attorney Isabel Lipman questioned the grandmother’s exact whereabouts when the shooting occurred, reiterating the witness’ testimony that she only caught a glimpse of the shooter’s face, which was still difficult to see since it was dark.

Lipman previously said, in opening statements, that the description of the shooter the victim and her family gave to police did not fit her client’s description, including the shooter’s name, height, and hair.

“There’s no credible evidence,” the defense attorney said to the jury.

During her testimony, the victim said she heard her friend, the defendant, and two others when they showed up at the house. As they shouted for her to come outside, the victim said, she put her daughter in an upstairs closet .

“We was prepared to fight, but it went a different way,” she said, describing how she “stood there and froze” as windows shattered around her and “bullets were flying past my head.”

The victim’s testimony continued Friday afternoon before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge LaZette Ringgold-Kirksey.