It seems so far that nobody saw or even heard anything unusual in the early morning hours Tuesday, when a Baltimore County middle school teacher was shot to death near his apartment, police said.
Detectives have questioned the neighbors and collected evidence as they launched their investigation into the death of Dewayne B. Jones, 30, a police spokesman said, but so far nothing meaningful has turned up. Now they?re hoping the public will help with clues.
“Did anybody see a car speeding away, somebody lingering on the street?” asked police spokesman Bill Toohey. Jones lived alone, and there was no sign of a break-in at his apartment in the unit block of Vimy Court, police said.
It isn?t even clear what, if anything, drew Jones out of his home before dawn that day, still dressed in clothes “consistent with being home at night,” Toohey said.
As police worked to piece together what happened, Jones? co-workers in the Baltimore County Public School system were coping with the news of his death, a school spokesman said.
A special education teacher at Deep Creek Middle School who started work in January 2005, Jones was expected to return for classes this fall, the spokesman said.
Calls to Deep Creek Middle School were referred to the school system?s spokesman. The principal who worked with Jones at Deep Creek last year could not be reached for comment.
Police were in Jones? neighborhood responding to a report of property destruction at around the same time the shooting occurred, according to police Cpl. Michael Hill. A passerby flagged the police shortly after 4 a.m. and reported that a man was lying in the street and appeared to be having a seizure, he said.
Jones was still alive when police found him in the street on Morane Way near Vimy Court, bleeding from at least one gunshot wound to the upper body, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at Franklin Square Hospital, police said.
Anyone with information about the death can report the information anonymously by calling Metro Crime Stoppers at 410-756-2587, or can speak to Baltimore County police directly by calling 410-307-2020.
