Baltimore police have charged a second man in a double homicide in Bolton Hill called one of the worst examples of “road rage” in recent memory.
Donavon J. Lawrence, 27, of the 4700 block of York Road in Baltimore, is the second man charged with the murder of Edward Baylor, 32, and Rebecca Meekins, 16, on Feb. 27. His co-defendant, Tavon Spruell, 22, of the 400 block of Poole Road in Westminster, was indicted in July in the killings.
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At 5:40 p.m. Feb. 27, Baylor and Meekins were traveling in a Ford Crown Victoria near North and Pennsylvania avenues, when they nearly collided with a Volkswagen Jetta driven by Spruell and carrying two passengers, police said.
Spruell and Baylor then drove side by side yelling obscenities, according to charging documents.
“The verbal altercation escalated as Edward Baylor and Tavon Spruell both expressed their desires for the other to stop their vehicle and engage in a physical altercation,” Detective Corey Alston wrote in his report.
Both vehicles stopped on the 1500 block of Mount Royal Avenue — and gunshots were fired from the Jetta’s passenger-side window, charging documents state.
Lawrence, one of the passengers in the Jetta, handed a .40-caliber Glock handgun to another man in the car before the shooting began, police said.
Baylor tried to drive away, but Spruell followed. Several parked cars were struck in the chase, including a Saturn sedan that was crashed into by the Crown Victoria, police said.
Baylor and Meekins suffered gunshot wounds to the upper body and were pronounced dead at the Shock Trauma Center.
Witnesses identified Spruell as the driver of the Jetta, which was recovered the next day on the 2700 block of Windsor Avenue in Baltimore, police said. The Jetta had been stolen from Baltimore County a week earlier, police said.
After the killings, Baltimore police spokesman Donny Moses said the motive for the crime was “road rage,” while AAA Mid-Atlantic called the slayings “the most extreme” incident of road rage in recent memory.
Lawrence is being held without bail at the Baltimore City jail. He has a preliminary hearing slated for Jan. 13.
Spruell’s trial is scheduled for Feb. 24.
