A Baltimore judge on Tuesday instructed a jury to continue deliberating in the case of a 16-year-old accused of shooting and killing a man who confronted a group of squeegee workers with a baseball bat near the Inner Harbor.

Circuit Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer said the jury sent a note at 1:50 p.m. asking for written guidance on the definition of a mistrial. She instead later delivered an Allen charge, which is an instruction encouraging jurors to try to reach a unanimous verdict.

“The verdict must be the considered judgment of each of you,” said Schiffer, who told jurors to reflect on the viewpoints of other members of the panel but not to change their honest beliefs for the sake of reaching a unanimous decision. “Each of you must decide the case for yourself.”

The jury was released at 5:20 p.m. Tuesday and will resume its deliberations Wednesday. Jurors started considering the case Monday.

The teen is charged with first-degree murder and related offenses in the killing of Timothy Reynolds, 48, of Hampden, which happened after 4:30 p.m. at the intersection of Light and Conway streets near Oriole Park at Camden Yards on July 7, 2022. He was an engineer and a married father of three.

The Baltimore Banner is not identifying the defendant because of his age. He was 14 at the time and went to Digital Harbor High School.

Reynolds had some type of interaction with squeegee workers, drove through the intersection, parked his SUV, walked across multiple lanes of traffic and confronted them with a bat. Squeegee workers are predominantly young Black men who have for decades washed windows at intersections in the city in the hopes of earning cash tips.

Assistant State’s Attorney Cynthia Banks argued that Reynolds was walking away from the squeegee workers when three of the young people followed him.

Reynolds, she said, later swung the bat one time in response to an object being thrown at him. He was then hit in the head with a rock and became dazed, Banks said.

The teen, she said, retrieved a book bag containing a gun, ran off to cover his face and returned to the confrontation, firing five times. Reynolds was pronounced dead of multiple gunshot wounds at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland.

Banks said she felt it was “a bit early” for the judge to give that instruction to the jury.

Thiru Vignarajah, an attorney who’s representing the Reynolds family, briefly spoke to reporters outside the courtroom.

“This is obviously a difficult time for everyone,” Vignarajah said. “The family has waited a long time for justice. They’re willing to wait a little longer.”

J. Wyndal Gordon and Warren Brown, the teen’s attorneys, raised questions about whether their client was the shooter. They contended that the gunman acted in self-defense or defense of others.

Outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, Brown said his client is waiting in anticipation of a verdict, adding that the teen’s future hangs in the balance.

“You know, what you want to hear most is not guilty. But what you would want to hear least is guilty,” Brown said. “So if it’s a hung jury, you know, we can live with that — it gives us a chance to reboot and try this case again.”

The teen is being held without bail in the Youth Detention Center, according to jail records.

dylan.segelbaum@thebaltimorebanner.com