Residents of a quiet Annapolis apartment complex are shocked and scared four days after the shooting deaths of two neighbors.
“People are petrified. We?ve never seen anything like this before,” said Carol Dessasau, 64, who has lived for about 20 years at Bay Ridge Gardens on Bens Drive.
“Everyone is just staying in their house.”
A pile of teddy bears and flowers Wednesday memorialized the first-floor apartment 29A where a disabled woman who used a wheelchair and her neighbor were found Friday morning.
The killings have baffled Annapolis police, who said they have no motives or suspects in the slaying of Cecelia Brown, 51, and Charles Cully Jr., 29.
There were no signs of forced entry, and police don?t know whether the victims were targeted, said police spokesman Hal Dalton.
Neighbors said they are just as confused.
“Cecelia was such a nice person. She used to be on the [community?s] board, and she didn?t bother anybody,” said Melissa White, 41, who joined several other women at the community?s weekly food giveaway.
White said she has been scared to go home to her first-floor apartment.
Neighbors said Brown was a cancer survivor with three children, the youngest a 10-year-old boy. Her husband, Bobbie Jean Turner, could not be reached for comment.
Turner, who lives on President Street in Eastport, is not a suspect at this time, Dalton said.
Cully was “a quiet boy,” neighbors said. His grandfather, Charles Cully Sr., of Annapolis, said he doesn?t know why anyone would hurt his grandson and funeral arrangements have not been made at this time.
Dalton said the apartment complex has seen its share of crime, including a homicide in September in the complex?s parking lot.
Anthony Jackson, 20, of Annapolis, was arrested for that murder and is scheduled to go on trial in April for killing Andree Jackson, 18, of Annapolis, according to court records. The suspect nor victim were residents of the apartment complex.
The double homicide comes on the heels of an Annapolis community association requesting at a recent city council meeting that the police provide monthly status reports on recruiting efforts.
“More officers would help,” Dalton said.
“But I don?t think it?s a magic bullet, and overnight we?ll have less crime.”
