With its town houses, lake view and nearby parks, the 1800 block of Edgewood?s Brookside Drive doesn?t look like a violent place.
But Saturday?s fatal shooting of 25-year-old Samuel David Horne marked Harford?s second slaying in 2007 and the fifth in the Edgewood area since the July 11, 2006, death of Kevin James Rowlette on the same block.
And the path linking Brookside Drive to the Edgewood shopping center and Route 40 beyond has been the scene of a stabbing, a shooting and several beatings.
After the latest violence, police pledged to intensify crime-fighting efforts in Edgewood.
At leasttwo deputies are on patrol in the Edgewood/Joppatowne area at any given time, and an additional 15 officers with the gang-suppression unit and an undercover unit often patrol the community, said Sheriff Jesse Bane.
“The criminal element has gotten used to us; they?ve gotten used to our strategies,” Bane said. “So we?re going to change those strategies here in the near future.”
Bane did not offer specifics.
Sam Gibson, an Edgewood resident and former safety and security chairman of the Edgewood Community Council, said the sheriff?s office was doing its best to fight violence.
“It?s like a cancer. We have a sore in Edgewood, and it?s going to spread all over Harford County,” Gibson said.
He blamed the county for allowing so much poverty to build, particularly through subsidized housing, in the area beset by drug- and gang-related violence.
“Outside of the sheriff?s office, Harford County?s only been worrying about BRAC,” Gibson said. “How about the people who are here? You have a concentration of people with nothing, and nothing to lose.”
County Councilman Dion Guthrie, who represents Edgewood and Joppatowne, agreed police have done what they could. “You?re just not going to stop every murder; not in this world,” he said.
Police issued a warrant Monday for 28-year-old Sean Nelson Smith, who lived on Brookside Drive, in connection with Horne?s death. Investigators suspect Smith and Horne had a dispute before Horne was shot several times and killed.
Smith, a black male about 5 feet 6 inches tall with tattoos on his right arm, might be driving a burgundy Cadillac four-door with temporary tags and might have fled the state, Sgt. Christina Presberry said.
EDGEWOOD CRIME MEETING
A community meeting has been scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at the Edgewood Boys and Girls Club.
Examiner Staff Writer Mike Silvestri contributed to this report.
