Sean Levy’s name does not appear on a list of murder victims.
But only a few inches — where a bullet missed killing him, leaving him paralyzed — separate Levy, 20, from those names.
“Everyone thought he was dead,” says Levy’s mother, Sandra Gardiner, 41, a Jamaican immigrant. “Even the doctor said, it’s beyond him why he’s alive.”
As Baltimore’s homicide and nonfatal shooting rate decreases, Levy’s brush with death offers an all-too-familiar example of the city’s deepest problems, which police and prosecutors say they’re working hard to fix.
Levy’s accused shooter, Darryl Newsome, 22, has been arrested multiple times, including on gun and drug charges. Yet he was out on the streets using a gun to settle a petty dispute — in Levy’s case over moving a table at his job at the Hilton Hotel at Thurgood Marshall-BWI Airport.
“As we speak, my son is still in the hospital,” Gardiner says. “It’s just unbelievable. All over a table?”
Nonfatal shootings, like Levy’s, are among the highest priorities for Baltimore’s law enforcement as they target gun criminals.
Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said Baltimore police have recently taken a “unique” approach to fighting crime, by focusing much of the department’s attention on gun criminals.
“It’s unique among major city police departments,” Rosenstein says. “The Baltimore city police in every case that involves an illegal gun, they handle that case differently. They handle that with the kind of attention it deserves.”
Murders drop 30 percent
This year, that focus on gun criminals has paid dividends, police say, with the city’s murders down 30 percent from last year — 162 compared with 231. September’s 19 homicides, three less than last year, are the lowest number of murders for the month since 2003.
“One of the challenges moving forward is what we’re going to do in the future,” said Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld. “People keep asking about, ‘Well, 30 percent down, the shootings are down, is it a fluke? Is it bad weather? Is it good trauma care?’ I’ll tell you: I’d be a little weirded out about those things if I didn’t have confidence in the system we’ve put in place.”
In Levy’s case, the quick work of doctors definitely played a role in saving his life, his mother says.
“He had over 300 stitches,” she said.
An argument at work
AN The altercation that led to Levy’s Oct. 24, 2007 shooting, a case expected to go to trial this month, began when the 20-year-old got into an argument with a coworker, Keya Gardner, at the hotel over moving and using a table, Gardiner says.
During the argument, Levy heard Gardner call her boyfriend and say, “Bring that thing,” she says.
As Levy left work, giving a different coworker a ride home to Baltimore, he noticed he was being followed.
Levy dropped his coworker off at 33rd Street and Loch Raven Boulevard — and was ambushed, his mother said.
“That’s when the other car pulled up and they just started shooting,” she said.
What frustrates Gardiner is that Newsome was out on the streets.
“He has several prior cases and most of them [were dropped]” she said. “This guy was out on probation, after a handgun violation. It gave him an opportunity to almost kill my son.”
Statistics show the city is getting safer at a time when other major East Coast cities aren’t seeing the same drops in violence. New York’s murder rate is down by 9 percent, while Washington, D.C.’s is exactly the same as last year.
“We’re done talking,” Bealefeld said. “We’ve been talking and talking and talking. What you’re seeing is action. If you have a gun in Baltimore, federal state and local folks are working our tail off to put bad guys with guns in jail. And it’s only a matter of time until we get around to you.”
Worst offenders targeted
Rosenstein says special squads of law enforcement officers have been targeting the worst offenders in East and West Baltimore and in the Park Heights area of Northwest Baltimore.
“We don’t wait for them to come to our attention,” he says. “We go out; we use undercover investigation; we develop informants and cooperating witnesses to develop proactive cases.”
In the past six months, officers have locked up 30 of the city’s worst violent repeat offenders, he said.
“The word is getting out to criminals in Baltimore City,” he said. “If you’re a criminal in Baltimore City, you’re going to wind up in prison.”
But Gardiner said she doesn’t feel so confident about the city’s safety. Though she said the shooting brought her and her son closer — and inspired him to become a motivational speaker — she says she cannot live in the city anymore.
“I’m just so afraid of Baltimore,” she said. “I’ll never come back to Baltimore.”
SEPTEMBER HOMICIDE VICTIMS
• Sept. 1: Durrell Aldridge, 24, 4200 block of Frederick Avenue
• Sept. 1: Reginald Carter Jr., 20, 400 block of South Longwood Street
• Sept. 3: Tyrone Bowie, 26, 2100 block of Ashland Avenue
• Sept. 4: Wilbert Flowers, 31, 800 block of East 43rd Street
• Sept. 4: Floyd Jones, 56, East North Avenue and North Port Street
• Sept. 6: Shirley Johnson, 44, 1100 block of North Woodington Road *Arrest made
• Sept. 6: Andre Harris, 23, 200 block of Harmison Street
• Sept. 8: Demarco Brown Jr., 25, 800 block of North Milton Avenue
• Sept. 9: Robert Wilson, 23, 2000 block of Boone Street
• Sept. 11: Dominic Faw, 29, 200 block of North Eutaw Street
• Sept. 11: Darien Sawyer, 29, 1500 block of Wadsworthy Way *Arrest made
• Sept. 14: Lloyd Melton, 2100 block of Boston Street
• Sept. 14: Barry Graham, 24, 700 block of West Lexington
• Sept. 20: Kenneth N. Harris Sr., 45, 1500 block of Havenwood Road
• Sept. 23: Derrick Reid, 15, 2500 block of Aisquith Street
• Sept. 26: Jarell Laws, 17, 5300 block of Cordelia Street
• Sept. 28: Kevin Rouzer, 29, 1700 block of North Broadway
• Sept. 29: Helen Reightler, 43, Pratt and Charles streets *Arrest made
• Sept. 30: Michael Wilson, 24, 3100 block of Belair Road
Source: Baltimore Police Department
