Ahead of Thursday’s critical hearing for the 15-year-old squeegee worker charged in a fatal shooting, prosecutors, defense attorneys and the family of Timothy Reynolds have been publicly sparring, and new evidence, including still photos taken from surveillance footage, has been released.
Now, The Baltimore Banner is posting dash cam footage that shows the fatal encounter’s final moments.
The Banner previously reported on the footage in July. It does not show the 48-year-old Hampden man’s initial approach to the workers when he crossed multiple lanes of traffic carrying a baseball bat. The driver who recorded the video was pulled up several cars behind at a stop light.
Reynolds can be seen walking away from the intersection, and points a bat at three squeegee workers, who are following him from about 20 feet away.
Reynolds continues walking and becomes obscured by a car, and the squeegee workers appear to converge behind the car as well. It’s unclear what happens but the squeegee workers begin running away, and Reynolds is then seen swinging the bat while running after them.
One squeegee worker appears to strike Reynolds in the head while Reynolds has the bat raised toward another worker— police have said Reynolds was struck with a rock and appeared to become disoriented. Reynolds lowers the bat and appears to stumble, and is standing still when a worker starts firing.
One shot can be heard, and Reynolds begins going to the ground. Four more shots are fired in succession.
The fatal encounter began when Reynolds pulled through the busy intersection at Light and Conway streets near the Inner Harbor around 4:30 p.m. on July 7. He got out of his car, crossed nine lanes of traffic and returned to where the squeegee workers were, carrying a baseball bat.
Defense attorneys for the boy, who was 14 years-old on the day of the shooting, have maintained the boy — if he was the shooter — acted in self-defense and that juvenile court is the appropriate venue for the case. Prosecutors, who initially charged the boy as an adult with first-degree murder, are now supporting a transfer to juvenile court and a plea to manslaughter.
Reynolds’ family broke their silence after being informed of those plans, and retained attorney Thiru Vignarajah, who on Tuesday released evidence from a state court filing that showed a squeegee worker retrieved a gun from a backpack, pulled down a ski mask and shot Reynolds in the back. The filing shows Reynolds had a blood alcohol level of .03, which Viganarajah said disputed defense claims that Reynolds was over the legal limit at the time.
“A fiction has been presented to the public. A fiction that the victim was some crazed, intoxicated, bat-wielding maniac who viciously attacked a number of children, and the children, in the heat of the moment, in self-defense and in a lapse of judgment, fired back because they had to,” Vignarajah told reporters Tuesday. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The family has been calling for the release of the video.
The Reynolds family is hoping Judge Charles Dorsey will keep the case in adult court and deny the teen a chance to plead out to a reduced charge Thursday. Prosecutors say they are pursuing the proper outcome.
“Juvenile court exists for a reason, and our decision is based on all the facts and circumstances pertaining to the actions of a 14-year-old minor,” State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said in a statement Monday. She added that there were other factors considered that they could not discuss publicly because the case is currently a pending and sealed matter.
justin.fenton@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Justin Fenton is an investigative reporter for the Baltimore Banner. He previously spent 17 years at the Baltimore Sun, covering the criminal justice system. His book, "We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption," was released by Random House in 2021 and became an HBO miniseries.
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