Witnesses Struggle to Remember Details in Beaumont St. Shooting

By Grace Kemper [former] - March 30, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

Witnesses called in the trial of a 30-year-old homicide defendant struggled to remember details of the 2020 incident during a jury trial on March 29 before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Videtta A. Brown. 

According to prosecutors, on Sept. 10, 2020, there was a physical altercation between Donnell Johnson and 27-year-old Kenneth Bivens on the 1000 block of Beaumont Street. Johnson allegedly shot Bivens in the back of the head, leading to his death two days later.

On Tuesday, defense attorney Brandon Mead informed the jury that no weapon, fingerprints, or DNA evidence was collected that connected Johnson to Bivens’ murder. Although there was DNA found under the victim’s fingernails, it did not come from Johnson. 

The prosecutor introduced a friend of the victim who testified that he was hanging out on a front porch with Bivens. According to initial police records, Bivens received a phone call and told the witness that he needed to meet someone nicknamed “D” to sell him marijuana.

The witness told the jury that he did not remember telling police that it was a drug deal and did not know why Bivens went to meet “D.”

According to the witness, someone met Bivens down the street within eyesight of the porch where he was located. They initially hugged before they started to “tussle,” he said, and then a gun was fired once, missing the victim but sending him to the ground.

Bivens got up and began to run toward the porch when the shooter, later identified as Johnson, allegedly shot him in the back of the head. 

The witness said he was unable to identify the suspect in a photo array but said the shooter had brown skin. However, a school police officer did identify the defendant in a photo array.

According to her testimony, the officer was in her home at the time of the incident and assumed the sounds from the fight were just kids playing until she heard a gunshot. 

The witness said she grabbed her service weapon and saw Bivens get shot as she was running out of the house. She said she also saw the suspect drive away in a car with a young woman, who was not identified.

When asked if she saw the shooter in the room, the witness pointed to the defendant. 

During cross-examination, Mead told the jury that the officer initially described the suspect as 5 feet, 10 inches tall with a slim build, scruffy hair, and a matted beard. The defense attorney asked Johnson to stand up, revealing him to be a taller man with a huskier build.

Mead asked the school police officer if she would still identify the defendant as “slim” to which she responded she was unsure.

Johnson’s trial is expected to continue on March 30.