Acquitted: Shooter Fires on Two Teens, Injures One, Prosecution Says

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Editor’s note: The defendant was acquitted of charges in this case.

Two Baltimore City teenagers decided to take a different way home from school on April 29, 2022, when 39-year-old Davon Jenkins shot at them, injuring one of the boys, a prosecutor said at the start of the defendant’s trial on Dec. 12.

Around 3:45 p.m. on the day of the shooting, the 16-year-old and 17-year-old boys were walking along the 1200 block of Greenmount Avenue where Jenkins was allegedly working under the hood of his white GMC SUV, the prosecutor told the jury during her opening statement. According to charging documents, Jenkins ran toward the victims, pulled out a handgun and shot the 17-year-old boy in his stomach and once in each arm.

Jenkins, who the prosecution said was wearing a mask, then chased after the 16-year-old victim and fired multiple gunshots. However, the second victim was uninjured.

Court documents state the two victims encountered Jenkins the day before the shooting when he asked, “What y’all on?” wanting to know why they were in the area. Some words were exchanged, but the victims continued walking.

At trial, the prosecutor said the 17-year-old victim’s father found his son at the scene and remained calm as he called 911.

“This is a circumstantial case…” the prosecutor said, acknowledging the weapon was not recovered and the victims would not be testifying at trial. “But that doesn’t make what happened to them any less real.”

Baltimore Police Department detectives found multiple shell casings around the SUV, which they learned was registered to the defendant, as well as video evidence from a passerby’s dashboard camera and city bus footage. This video evidence, combined with additional video evidence placing Jenkins’ in the area, helped detectives identify the defendant’s shoes and watch, both of which were worn by the shooter, the prosecutor concluded.

Defense attorney Jason Rodriguez responded he wanted to keep his opening statement brief in order to allow the facts to speak for themselves. The prosecution’s evidence was nothing but “grasping at straws,” he said.

“My client had nothing to do with [the two victims] being shot at,” Rodriguez said. “…It’s clear [Jenkins] is in the area, but that’s all the [prosecution] will be able to show.”

The trial proceeded with testimony from the prosecution’s first witness before Judge Charles J. Peters.

Jenkins is facing multiple attempted murder, assault and weapons charges.

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