BALTIMORE, Md. — In a matter of a few days, Richard Parker saw three people become victims of either assault or armed robbery right outside his front door on Beech Avenue in Hampden.
First, on Sunday night, around 11:
"I heard a guy yelling, somebody please help me,” Parker recalled to WMAR-2 News’ Elizabeth Worthington about the robbery. “He said they were all armed. They had ski masks on and they were dressed in black."
Then, on Wednesday:
"It was about 11:30 in the afternoon. Again, I heard yelling," Parker said.
Two men were punched and robbed by a group of teenagers.
"I yelled at them, get out of here. And the one yelled back at me, ‘well we'll get you,’” before they sped off.
The two incidents were part of two larger crime sprees, committed in the same area by two separate groups of juveniles, according to Baltimore Police.
On Wednesday morning, it started near Johns Hopkins University with a stolen car. Then there was the robbery and assault on Beech Avenue. They moved on to Chestnut Avenue for another armed robbery, before an unsuccessful attempt on the Alameda, and wrapped it up with another robbery and assault on Marble Hall Avenue.
Both Wednesday’s and Sunday’s incidents are outlined by Baltimore Police below.
"They do not stop until they get caught, and then you end up with a lot of victims,” Parker said.
This group did get caught - five suspects ranging in age from 12 to 16-years-old. From Sunday's group of about 5 or 6, police only caught one - another 12-year-old.
"I mean, what are they doing? They should be in school,” a woman who works at Andamento Studio & Gallery on Chestnut Ave and wanted to remain anonymous. "And they get away with it, you know? It's really sad."
"It used to surprise me. It doesn't anymore,” Mike Beckener said of the suspect’s ages. He lives on W. University Parkway in Roland Park, near where someone was assaulted and robbed on Sunday, and car was stolen on Wednesday. "I was glad to see at least they caught them. I guess the biggest thing is, what's gonna happen now? Are they just gonna slap them on the wrist and let them go home to mommy? Or are they gonna keep them?"
We had the same question. Baltimore Police said the suspects were taken to the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, where "they will be charged.” But that does not mean they were detained there. They could have been sent home on GPS monitoring while they wait for their first court appearance. We asked the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) whether they were held or released. A spokesperson said "Maryland confidentiality laws prohibit the Department of Juvenile Services from commenting on individual youth or individual cases."
Below is a step-by-step flow chart from DJS’s website that shows how complex the juvenile justice process is, and how many options there are for children brought into juvenile booking.
“I understand they’re juveniles but the ones that are like 16, 17 they ought to be charged as adults,” Parker said. “They know what they’re doing, how bad it is. They know that. You know, a 12 year-old maybe you can put him in a program, the ankle bracelet or something like that. They have to have consequences for what they do or they don’t learn anything. And you know as a teenager, and it’s all teenagers, you’re invincible. You don’t think you’re gonna get hurt or die or anything like that. So they don’t care, they just take their chances.”
The five suspects from Wednesday's events had all been previously arrested for stealing cars.
Under DJS's brand new policy announced this week, any child brought to DJS intake after a violent felony who is not detained, will be placed on GPS monitoring. And any child who commits a violent felony while already on GPS monitoring will automatically be detained. Before, those were just options, not requirements.
We asked DJS if any of the suspects in this case were on electronic monitoring at the time of the arrest. Again, a spokesperson said they can't comment on juvenile cases. The Baltimore City State's Attorney's office also said it was shielded from providing those details.
Below, also from DJS's website, are samples of the forms an intake officer must fill out when a juvenile suspect is brought in. It's called a Detention Risk Assessment Instrument, and it's what is used to determine whether a child will be detained, released, or placed on "community detention," which involves GPS monitoring.
On Tuesday, the Joint Republican Caucus penned a letter to Governor Moore calling for the removal of DJS Secretary Vincent Schiraldi, who was appointed to the position in 2023, a year after controversial juvenile justice reforms were passed that place emphasis on protecting youth offenders. Nothing in that law mandates DJS intake officers release juveniles after certain crimes, but DJS policy calls for intake directors to "minimize the need for unnecessary detention or shelter care of youth."
In the past year, a few high-profile cases in which juvenile suspects were released after a violent crime, have led to public outrage from both citizens and lawmakers.
In November 2023, a 12 and 14-year-old were released from BPD custody, after getting arrested for attacking a woman while she was walking home in Patterson Park. Five Baltimore City legislators who wrote a letter to BPD and the Department of Juvenile Services, demanding accountability.
Just this past week, a 66 year-old was attacked and robbedoutside of his home in Butchers Hill. An 18 year-old was detained and charged with attempted murder, but a 15 year-old was initially let go, even after BPD requested he be held at DJS. After fierce backlash, the 15 year-old was later charged as an adult for attempted murder, Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates announced on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, WMAR-2 News submitted a Public Information Act request to DJS to get data on how often juveniles are held at DJS.
We found that from 2021 to 2023, the number of juvenile complaints more than doubled in Baltimore. But the percentage of kids who were actually detained went down. 24% of all juvenile complaints led to detention in 2021. In 2023, it was 13%. The average length of stay in a facility also went down - from 23 days to 16 days.
In April, WMAR-2 news covered issues with Child in Need of Supervision, (CINS) petitions, after two ten year-olds and a seven year-old were caught burgalarizing a business on New Year's Eve. Under the 2022 juvenile justice law, they are too young to be charged with a crime, but the BPD officer was also unable to file a CINS petition with DJS.
A new juvenile justice law goes into effect on November 1. We examined how some of those changes might have made a difference in recent cases here.
