Police were called to 2700 Harford Road — the site of a shooting inside the Chinese Cuisine carryout — 176 times this year, records show.
Many of the 911 calls were for car stops (81) or field interviews (35), but police logged calls for robbery, aggravated assault, armed person, discharging a firearm and narcotics.
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The owners of the store, Sau Kin Yau and Hong Ying Yau, could not be reached for comment. “I’m in a lot of pain,” said Marvin Edmonds, 45, the customer shot in the left knee inside the northeast Baltimore carryout — while onlookers laughed and six or seven people “stepped around” him to order food as he sat on the floor bleeding.
“I limp a lot. I can’t run that much. When it rains it hurts real bad. I have to use my cane.”
Edmonds said he plans to meet with high-profile lawyer Dwight Pettit about the case.
“He looked me in my eyes and shot me — and then walked away,” Edmonds said of one of the teens charged in the case. “I was left there to die like I was dirt.”
The shooting occurred Aug. 6 at 12:12 a.m., shortly after Edmonds entered the carryout, according to charging documents.
Two males wearing bandanas entered the store, one after another. They rummaged through Edmonds’ pockets, pointed guns at his head and then both shot at him, striking him once in the left knee.
Darren Brown, of the 3300 block of Ellerslie Avenue, and David Jefferson, of the 2700 block of Tivoly Avenue, both 17, were charged as adults with first-degree attempted murder — a charge that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The subject of much outrage from prosecutors, judges and even Baltimore’s mayor is the reaction of two girls shown in the store — smiling and laughing during the robbery.
Tod Burke, a criminal justice professor at Radford University in Radford, Va., said it’s not uncommon for people to laugh as a defense mechanism during emotional times, such as funerals.
“This is shocking, but unfortunately, not that unusual,” Burke wrote in an e-mail. “People sometimes laugh at the most inappropriate times, such as funerals, religious services. … Some juveniles may be desensitized to violence due to video games and personal experiences.”
Richard Moran, professor of sociology at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., wrote in an e-mail that he didn’t consider the girls’ reaction that “bad.”
“The two girls look bemused rather than laughing as if the whole robbery is funny,” he said. “They do leave once the guy is shot. Now they become scared. The person in charge of the store seems to me to be the really insensitive one. He doesn’t help the victim, doesn’t call the police, just continues on as if nothing happened.”
Edmonds said he hopes the two young suspects are “held accountable.”
“They shot a person for nothing,” he said. “I didn’t bother you. … The way that guy looked me in my face and shot me, they need to be held accountable for their actions. They need to be dealt with as men.”
