Howard police are investigating two weekend shootings, one fatal, that happened within 24 hours in a quiet Columbia community.
Jason Batts, 23, of the 6200 block of Painted Yellow Gate in Columbia, was shot to death about 2:50 a.m. Saturday in the parking lot of Stevens Forest Apartments, in the 5800 block of Stevens Forest Road in Oakland Mills, police said. He died at the scene.
In what police called an unrelated shooting, Wayne Hamlin, 24, of the 5900 block of Harpers Farm Road, was shot in the shoulder in a group dispute about 1:12 a.m. Sunday in the 5800 block of Thunder Hill Road, police said. Hamlin was treated and released from the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center on Sunday morning.
Police said two groups were involved in a dispute before Hamlin?s shooting, and witnesses saw a group of people running into an apartment on Thunder Hill Road.
Residents were evacuated from neighboring apartments and taken to a nearby police satellite office while officers entered the apartment in question.
Police questioned people in the apartment, but no charges had been filed Sunday.
Batts? friends and family gathered outside his house Saturday in an upscale Columbia community off Snowden River Parkway. They declined comment.
Neighbors said Batts and his twin brother, Brandon, haven?t been in the neighborhood much since they graduated from Long Reach High School in 2002.
“[Jason] was always telling a joke and making people laugh,” said Alexandra Hall, 18, Batts? neighbor and former classmate.
Sunny Bhatia, 24, who graduated with Batts, also remembered him for his sense of humor.
Court records show Batts had pleaded guilty in 2002 to a handgun violation and drug possession and was sentenced to three years in prison, with all but nine months suspended.
Batts? death marked the second homicide in Columbia this year. Bryan Antoine Adams Jr., 20, of Columbia, was shot to death April 9 on a sidewalk in front of the shopping center at Wilde Lake in the 10400 block of Twin Rivers Road.
Columbia had five homicides in 2007, none of them in Oakland Mills.
