Almost three weeks after a Rodgers Forge man was shot in what Baltimore County Police said was an attempted robbery, officers obtained a warrant for the arrest of the teen accused of injuring him Tuesday morning, according to County Council member Mike Ertel.
Ertel said in a Facebook post that the warrant is “for the arrest of the teenager who is accused of shooting our 6th District neighbor in Rodgers Forge. The police have been working diligently and expect to have the suspect in custody soon.”
Ertel told The Banner that law enforcement officers think the teen is male, has possibly been in trouble before, and that they identified him through footage from Ring cameras at homes in the neighborhood.
Baltimore County Police on Thursday confirmed that a warrant had been issued for a teenager being sought in the shooting. In a statement, County Police did not give any details about the teen being sought.
On Sept. 13, police responded to reports of a shooting in the 400 block of Dunkirk Road just after 11:30 a.m., where they found a 50-year-old man with a single gunshot wound to his upper body.
Detectives confirmed the shot was fired during an attempted robbery, after which the victim was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, police said in a Sept. 16 news release.
After the shooting, residents of the Rodgers Forge community rallied around a beloved youth sports coach and father, the apparent victim of an attempted robbery and shooting outside his home.
A GoFundMe online fundraiser was launched Sept. 15 to help the family of Mark McKenzie, a husband, father and community member. About 1,300 people had donated to the campaign as of Oct. 2, raising more than $129,000.
The fundraiser’s organizer, Matthew Garrity, updated the fundraiser on Sept. 24 to say thank you to everyone who donated.
“Thank you to everyone who has donated to the McKenzie family; the outpouring of support from this community has been incredible,” Garrity wrote. “Mark is currently stable and being care[d] for by an amazing medical team at Hopkins. Please keep he and his family in your prayers.
As well as fundraising for the family, McKenzie’s close friends, neighbors and other community members helped by cooking for the family and providing meals, Ertel said.
“You have a resident who’s a father of two kids,” Ertel said. “He was a rec council coach, he’s been involved in a lot of different things in the in the larger community, and his only mistake was that he decided to take the day off and clean out his garage out on a Friday.”
Ertel said it was a completely random crime that could have happened to anyone.
On Sept. 24, Ertel organized a community walk and said more than 100 people showed up to support the victim and his family.
“People just wanted to be able to do something that they felt like put everybody together to talk and be together — it was nice,” Ertel said. “I wouldn’t go as far as saying therapeutic, but I felt that you could just tell the way everybody seemed to be was just happy to be there for the family and for the neighborhood.”
Rodgers Forge is a very close-knit neighborhood of 1,400 townhomes, Ertel said. There are always kids playing outside, people walking on the sidewalks or in the alleyways and this crime just “hit home,” he said.
Ertel said he bad things can happen anywhere, but he does not want this to define the community and make residents scared to leave their homes.
As detectives continue to investigate, they have asked anyone with information to contact them, and Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland is offering a cash reward for up to $2,000.
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