‘If He Didn’t Have a Gun, He Wouldn’t Be Here Today,’ Says Prosecutor in Bail Hearing in Non-Fatal Shooting Case

By Shayna Sefret [former] - June 23, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

During a bail hearing on June 21, a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge granted the defense’s request for home detention in relation to a March 11 non-fatal shooting.

Despite the prosecutor and pretrial coordinator’s recommendation for defendant Bryant Floyd to be held without bail, Judge Kendra Y. Ausby ordered Floyd, 31, to home detention. 

Defense attorney Daniel Mooney began the hearing with his statement on behalf of Floyd. He told Judge Ausby that Floyd has a wife and two children, ages 5 and 7, and he was formerly working as a chef at the T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant in Arundel Mills. Even after Floyd was taken to jail as he waited for his trial, Mooney claimed Floyd’s managers kept his job open in hopes he could soon return.

Originally, the police report stated that Floyd shot the victim first, but Mooney claimed CCTV footage now showed the victim shooting Floyd first, and Floyd shooting back in self-defense. 

According to Mooney, Floyd arrived at his old apartment to pay his rent but had to go back to his car on the street, where he was approached by an unknown male asking if Floyd had seen his phone. Floyd told the man he had not and the man walked away but the came back and accused Floyd of stealing his phone. The man brandished a gun. After Floyd stepped out of his car with his hands up, the man walked away and Floyd called his wife to tell her what happened. Thinking Floyd had called the police, the man shot Floyd and Floyd shot back. The defense claimed Floyd’s children had seen their father get shot. There was no gun recovered from Floyd. 

Floyd was treated at Sinai Hospital from March 11 through March 17 for a gunshot wound that entered through his torso, exited his back, and grazed his spine. The injury required Floyd to undergo a procedure to remove his spleen.

Mooney continued that Floyd is an active member of his community. Floyd involved himself in an organization known as the Cherry Hill Youth Program, and Mooney said he “made a good life for himself.” With that, Mooney requested 24/7 house arrest with the possibility that Floyd could return to his job.

The prosecution told Judge Ausby that, “if he didn’t have a gun, he wouldn’t be [in court] today,” saying that gun violence and the defendant’s access to the weapon was the root of his problem. He also told her that Floyd was both a public safety risk and a flight risk and requested he be held without bail.

The prosecutor further remarked that this was not Floyd’s first run-in with the law. He was convicted of violating a protection order in 2022, committing malicious destruction of property in 2019, carrying a handgun on his person in 2016, committing second-degree assault in 2013 and illegally possessing a firearm as a minor in 2010.

Additionally, the prosecutor found fault with Mooney’s account of the incident, saying that the CCTV footage obtained by police showed that Floyd had a relationship with the other shooter and that neither of Floyd’shis children were seen on the tape.

The prosecutor went on to claim that if Floyd “goes with a gun, it’s a risk in and of itself,” and seemed concerned with the fact that Floyd involved himself in a youth organization while regularly carrying a gun. Pretrial agreed that Floyd posed a significant public safety risk and taking into consideration his past offenses, agreed with the prosecutor’s recommendation to hold him without bail.

Judge Ausby considered all sides, Floyd’s past offenses, public safety, and the relocation of Floyd and his family and ordered that Floyd will be held in home detention without the ability to return to work.

Floyd is charged with firearm possession with a felony conviction, illegal possession of a regulated firearm, having a handgun in a vehicle, having a handgun on his person, and firing a gun in Baltimore City in connection to the May 11 incident.