A 37-year-old man accused of firing a gun inside a Northwest Baltimore apartment building last August is set to serve three years each of active incarceration and probation after pleading guilty to a firearm possession charge on April 2.
In exchange for the plea, the state agreed to dismiss defendant Yale McKinnon’s remaining six charges, which included one count of substance possession and five other gun offenses. McKinnon was charged for firing his gun at Bon Secours Smallwood Summit on the unit block of N. Smallwood Street, shortly before noon on Aug. 6, 2025. No individuals were injured in the shooting.
Though the state offered McKinnon five years without parole, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Anthony F. Vittoria cited the defendant’s criminal history and chose to proceed with “a more effective approach,” sentencing the defendant to 10 years, suspending all but three. Upon completion of his sentence, McKinnon will begin a three-year supervised probationary period and must register as a gun offender.
“Having firearms in the city—it’s a scourge on the city,” Judge Vittoria told the defendant, whose record includes a prior felony conviction that prevented him from possessing a gun. “It’s starting to appear that that’s not sinking in.”
Defense attorney James Sweeting III explained that McKinnon, who has a history of substance abuse, “lost his way” and began “self-medicating” with drugs and alcohol, leading him to fall “off the deep end” and make poor decisions. Now, he said, his client “takes responsibility for his behavior.”
Meanwhile, the state argued McKinnon “had no business being in” the apartment building, and that he entered the residential property illegally before opening fire.
McKinnon himself offered no comment prior to sentencing.
