Fear and anxiety gripped the small cul-de-sac of Brookside Drive in Edgewood after a 20-year-old man was shot in the face and killed at around 3:15 p.m. Wednesday.
Kevin Harold Rowlette, 20, of Starboard Drive in Edgewood, was pronounced dead at the scene in the 1800 block of Brookside Drive ? just a few feet from where children had drawn pictures with colored chalk.
“I?m already starting to look for another place to live,” said one neighbor, adding that she and her family had only recently moved there. She said she was worried for her children.
Rowlette “was a good person,” said another woman. “He never did anything to anybody, but it?s always the martyrs that die.”
Both women said they were too afraid of retribution to have their names published. One wondered what police and community leaders were going to do to clean up the neighborhood.
Sam Gibson, a member of the Edgewood Community Council and chairman of the council?s Safe Neighborhoods Committee, said drug and gang-related crime in Edgewood is “a cancer” that can only be defeated through community unity.
“This can?t last and we have to put a stop to it. The police just can?t do it. The county can?t just do it. It has to be everyone,” Gibson said. “If the community sticks together, the gangs will get tired of being [harassed] and leave.”
Gibson said the community council is looking to start citizen-on-patrol groups in various “hot spots” of Edgewood in addition to trying to revamp those communities through roadway and infrastructure improvements, utilizing county grants. But none of these efforts will have any impact if residents of neighborhoods where violence has seemingly become a way of life do not step up and fight back, he said.
“We have a lot of good, decent people here in Edgewood ? [and] people are starting to care. That?s how we?re going to fix things up,” Gibson said.
Since February, two people have been injured by stray bullets that came through the doors of their homes in Edgewood.
After investigating Rowlette?s homicide well into Wednesday night, deputies have issued an arrest warrant for Kyvelle Jamaas Martin, 22, whose last known address was in the 1400 block of Harford Square Drive in Edgewood.
The warrant charges Martin with first-degree murder.
“There is no indication that the shooting was gang-related,” Bob Thomas, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff?s Office said Thursday afternoon.
Thomas said the investigation into the killing has revealed an on-going dispute between Rowlette and Martin, which goes back several weeks.
