LANSDOWNE, Md. — Raised voices outside her home in Baltimore Highlands awoke Karen Evans on New Year's Eve, but what she assumed was a fight soon erupted in gunfire.
"I heard gunshots,” recalled Evans. “I don't know how many rounds. It may have been more than 10 or eight, and I grabbed my grandkids (and) threw them in a backroom."
Moments later, Evans stepped out of her townhouse to see if anyone needed help.
"I saw a young lady laying there in the gutter...a pool of blood...a puddle of blood right there," said Evans as she pointed to the blood-stained pavement 20 feet away.
Neighbors tried to assist 23-year-old Brea Mitchell, but gunshot wounds had already sealed the fate of the single mother who leaves a pair of young daughters behind, and Karen Evans would soon learn that a second victim, 25-year-old Antwan Jones, had ran around behind her house where he collapsed from his wounds.
"Back there against the door like sitting up, and he was dead too," added Evans.
At this point, police have not identified a shooter.
"Right now, it's a wide-opened investigation,” said Cpl. Shawn Vinson of the Baltimore County Police Department. “We're looking into the possibility of anything that happened."
But one thing that is certain is that after living in Highland Village for seven years, Karen Evans has had enough, and her grandchildren no longer feel safe stepping outside of their home.
"I came back around to the front and I happened to turn around and I saw the hole right here, and I was like, 'Lord, this could have been me'. I'm so scared for my kids...my grandkids. I'm just ready to go. There are too many shootings around here for me now,” said Evans. "My grandson, even today, he didn't even really want to go to school. He's scared to come home from school."
