In less than two years, Curtis Hunt was shot a total of 12 times.
The bullets tore through his chest and left lung. They damaged his large and small intestines. And they caused his heart to swell.
But Baltimore Police alleged that he had a gun on him both times when he was shot. And because he’s not legally allowed to have one, Hunt, 25, of Baltimore, was then prosecuted — twice.
“He already lost so much time being shot and being hurt and being injured, laying there, having to think about everything,” said his girlfriend, Hailey Scarlett, 25. “Now, he’s got to sit and look at four walls.”
“He’s being punished for him being shot,” she added. “It’s not fair.”
His situation is complex. But it helps illustrate how people can be both victims and defendants in Baltimore Circuit Court — even in the same case.
‘Somebody didn’t mean for you to make it home’
On Feb. 16, 2022, Hunt was sitting on a lawn chair in front of a house near the intersection of South Fulton Avenue and Cole Street, on the border of Carrollton Ridge and Mount Clare in Southwest Baltimore.
His attorney said what happened next was captured on surveillance video. It was chilling:
In the footage, a man approached Hunt with his arm outstretched, holding a gun.
Before he had a chance to get out of his chair, Hunt was hit. He tried to run. But he was struck multiple times in the back and dropped to the ground.
The gunman, David Wilson, then straddled Hunt and was seemingly prepared to deliver the kill shot. But that’s when Hunt rolled over, drew his own gun and returned fire.
Officers discovered both men suffering from gunshot wounds.
Hunt had been shot 10 times. Doctors performed five lifesaving surgeries, his attorney said, and operated on him two more times.
Police concluded that Wilson was the aggressor but charged both of them with crimes.
Wilson, 26, of West Baltimore, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and use of a handgun during the commission of a crime of violence and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Hunt pleaded guilty to a gun charge and was allowed to serve out the remainder of his sentence on home detention. He was also ordered to spend three years on probation.
Inside a courtroom in Baltimore, Hunt explained to the judge that he had been working after leaving Catonsville High School. “But mostly,” he said, “I’ve been in and out of jail.”
Hunt said he got off track and made bad choices. Now that he’s getting older, he said, he realizes what he needs to do.
“Somebody didn’t mean for you to make it home,” Circuit Judge Dana M. Middleton said. “But you did. So the question now becomes, ‘What do you want to do for the rest of your life?’”
Middleton told Hunt that he was now an adult. People who fail to graduate from high school, she said, normally do not have many options.
“There’s only one person sitting at the table,” Middleton said, “not mom.”
“You understand?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“All right,” Middleton continued. “The court will impose the agreed-upon sentence.”
‘If you’re targeting the most violent folks, then more is better’
In a report released last year called “‘Two Battlefields’: Opps, Cops, and NYC Youth Gun Culture,” the Center for Justice Innovation examined why young people carry and use guns.
The report focuses on Brooklyn, New York, where researchers interviewed 103 people between 15-24 who in the previous year had carried a gun.
Seventy-five percent reported that their reason for carrying was fear of their own death. Seventy-two percent disclosed that their motivation was fear that someone might cause their family members harm.
Since taking office in 2023, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates has made prosecuting illegal gun possession a priority. He’s pledged to seek jail and prison time.
If people are thinking about carrying an illegal gun on the streets of Baltimore, Bates vowed during his inaugural address, “Grab your toothbrush as well. Because you gonna need it.”
Bates, a Democrat, has directed assistant state’s attorneys to proceed on counts that carry a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison — unless they’re told otherwise.
During the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office’s budget hearing for the 2025 fiscal year, Bates touted the difference in results.
Assistant state’s attorneys obtained 98 convictions in 2022 for possession of a firearm by a felon and using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, Bates said. Prosecutors in 2023 secured 164 such convictions.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland in 2022 took up 66 firearm cases from the city. Federal prosecutors picked up 90 of them in 2023 — the most, he said, in the past 15 years.
Daniel Webster, a professor and distinguished scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said prosecutors and detectives should work together and use the best available information to crack down on those who pose the highest risk.
A lot of times, he said, people in leadership positions including police commissioners, state’s attorneys and mayors tend to focus on numbers.
“The implication is more is always better,” Webster said. “I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.”
But, he added, “If you’re targeting the most violent folks, then more is better.”
‘I hope the next time I see you is not in this courthouse’
Six hundred and forty two days after he was first shot, Hunt went to a Dunkin’ on Washington Boulevard near Wickes Avenue in Morrell Park in Southwest Baltimore on Nov. 20, 2023.
Hunt was standing on the corner and texting, his attorney said, so he did not see the group approach him and fan out into a half-crescent.
But his attorney said one of the people yelled out to Hunt as if to make a point: You’re going to die.
With that little bit of warning, Hunt was able to retreat. They fired 15 shots, hitting him twice — once in the chest, and once in the left calf.
Surveillance video captured Hunt dropping an object and then tossing it over a gate.
A bystander took him to Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital. He was later transferred to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where doctors operated on him three times.
Neighbors flagged down an officer after they stumbled upon a Glock 26 in their backyard. The gun had been reported stolen in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it was fully loaded.
Police again filed charges against Hunt. At one point, prosecutors dropped the case after running into issues right before trial and immediately obtained a new indictment.
Hunt pleaded guilty on July 29 to two gun charges in exchange for a sentence of 10 years in prison, with seven years suspended, plus two years’ probation.
His mother, Tessie Rogers, 43, said she feels like her son was an easy target for law enforcement.
“He’s the victim,” Rogers said. “And this is the second time.”
Police have not made any other arrests, Rogers said. “If he would’ve died,” she said, “we would’ve gotten no justice.”
The shooting is “listed as an open and active investigation,” said Detective Niki Fennoy, a spokesperson for the Baltimore Police Department, in an email.
Circuit Judge Alan C. Lazerow told Hunt that he’s “happy you’re here with us.”
Lazerow said he usually has to deliver some sort of speech or lecture to people about the dangers of guns. But he said he felt that Hunt understood.
“I’m just going to tell you that I wish you the best of luck,” Lazerow said. “I hope the next time I see you is not in this courthouse.”
John Cox, Hunt’s attorney, said his client knows better.
But if Hunt did not have a gun in the past, he’d be dead, Cox said. He said he’s represented a number of clients in the past who were shot and then ended up being the only people to face charges.
“I’m not saying he shouldn’t be charged,” Cox said. “But sometimes, it’s a little bit frustrating to see the way victims are treated.”
Hunt, he said, knows he needs to leave Baltimore. And when Hunt is released from prison, that’s what he plans to do.
