BALTIMORE — The family home of the 16-year-old high school student killed last month at the Edmondson Village Shopping Center was shot up over the weekend, according to an attorney who represents members of the family.
Thiru Vignarajah said Monday that numerous family members were at the home when it was shot at early Saturday morning. Fortunately, he said, no one was injured and the family has since been relocated. He estimated the home was shot at four or five times, with one bullet striking the front door and another traveling through a window into the home.
Calling it a “targeted” shooting of the family’s home, Vignarajah said the family had no direct information it was connected to Deanta Dorsey’s killing.
But, he said, family members are not “going to bury our heads in the sand” about it taking place less than a day after a news conference where he was joined by the family to applaud the arrest of a 16-year-old boy in Dorsey’s killing. That arrest was announced by Baltimore Police on Thursday.
“This is a wake-up call about the importance of keeping family members safe in the wake of high-profile violent crimes, in particular,” Vignarajah said. “This is a city that is already afraid. Violent events, like shooting up the house of a family who’s already lost their little boy, only amplifies those concerns. We remain hopeful that justice will be done for Deanta.”
Vernon Davis, a spokesman for Baltimore Police, confirmed police responded around 1:45 a.m. Saturday to a report of “destruction of property and discharging.” Davis said police found a home that had been “hit multiple times by what seemed to be bullets,” and that family members were unharmed.
In a statement, Baltimore state’s attorney’s office spokesman James Bentley said the office was “saddened and disgusted at the reported shameless attack” on Dorsey’s family, and criticized Vignarajah for bringing his family members to the press conference Friday.
“We are quite concerned at the lack of care the family’s attorney has shown for their safety,” Bentley said. “At the press conference on Friday, he stated there remained a suspect at large but still had the family on display, demonstrating little to no concern for their safety.”
Dorsey, two 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds, all students at Edmondson-Westside High School, were standing in a parking lot at the West Baltimore shopping center around 11:20 a.m. on Jan. 4 when two shooters fired at them, killing Dorsey and injuring four others, police said.
Dorsey was remembered as a “sweet boy” with several brothers and sisters. He was a sophomore at the school.
Vignarajah said Friday that police believe there was another individual involved in the mass shooting who has yet to be arrested. Camera footage from the area of the shooting has been critical to the investigation, he said. Police previously released surveillance photos of two masked individuals apparently running from the scene.
On Monday, he said the weekend shooting emphasizes the “urgency” of apprehending the individuals involved in Dorsey’s killing.
The family didn’t speak at the Friday news conference, but Vignarajah told reporters they were grateful the teen suspect was charged with first-degree murder. He said the family did not wish to be identified.
”I am optimistic that they will reach a point where they are comfortable sharing their pain directly, that they are comfortable sharing their name — right now you know of them as the loved ones of a 16-year-old boy who was slain in broad daylight across from this high school – but that day has not come yet because this is a long journey,” Vignarajah told reporters Friday.
About halfway through his comments, Dorsey’s relatives were overcome with emotion, embraced and walked across the street to grieve privately.
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