Murders this Week: 4
Murders this Year: 29

A death was added to the homicide rolls this week. James Fields Jr., a 47-year-old African-American man, died on Jan. 5 at Northwest Medical Care Center, 18 years after he was shot. Fields was in a carryout in the 1900 block of Greenmount Avenue on May 30, 1992. He was talking to the owner of the carryout when one of the carryout employees allegedly pulled out a gun and began firing for no apparent reason. Fields was the only person hit. He became a paraplegic; his death was ruled a result of complications from the shooting. According to police, the employee was found not criminally responsible and was remanded to a maximum security psychiatric hospital. According to The Baltimore Sun, Hercules Thomas, an African-American man who was 28 at the time of the incident, was charged with Fields’ murder. The disposition of that case was not available on the state’s online database; however, Thomas has been arrested numerous times since the 1992 incident, with the last charge in 2004.

Saturday, March 5

3:19 p.m. After five days without a homicide, an attempted robbery injured one man and left another dead. George Marshall, a 57-year-old Caucasian man, and a 59-year-old Caucasian man were at work in the 2700 block of Hollins Ferry Road. According to the Sun, Marshall and his brother, the 59-year-old man, owned a landscaping company at that location. Marshall and his brother found someone stealing a truck in the parking lot behind the business. They tried to stop the robbery, but Marshall was run over and his brother was dragged behind the truck in which the man tried to flee. Marshall died at a local hospital at 3:19 p.m. His brother survived. Ellerson Carter, a 55-year-old African-American man, was arrested that day and charged with Marshall’s murder. This is the seventh murder in the Southern police district this year. It is currently tied with the Northeastern district for most murderous police district in the city.

Sunday, March 6

2:36 a.m. A car pulled up to the intersection of Nelson Avenue and Garrison Boulevard in Northwest Baltimore. An injured woman was dropped off and another woman began arguing with the driver of the car. Ronald Gibbs, a 17-year-old African-American male, came out of his home to see what the problem was. The woman arguing with the driver of the car was a relative of Gibbs. Gibbs and his relative started fighting with the driver of the car, who stabbed the woman in the arm and Gibbs several times. Gibbs died at an area hospital. His female relative survived, as did the woman who got out of the car. Police were unable to specify the nature of that woman’s injuries. Gibbs is the second minor murdered this year.

9:58 p.m. That night, Paul Simons III, a 23-year-old African-American man, died at an area hospital. Simons was attacked by a group of men inside a home in the 200 block of North Hilton Street during what may have been a robbery on March 3. Simons was shot in the torso. He managed to get out of the house but collapsed in the street.

Update

Jerrell Dixon, a 22-year-old African-American man, was arrested on March 1 for the murder of his grandfather Edgar Wilson, a 61-year-old African-American man. Wilson was founded stabbed to death in the basement of his home on Feb. 27.

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