A Harford County man was sentenced Tuesday for shooting and killing a 13-year-old girl in November 2022.
Tavon Battle, 37, was found guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court of first-degree murder in November 2023. Battle was sentenced to life plus 35 years, with the first 10 years without parole.
He was convicted of “indiscriminately” shooting at a car on East Fayette Street, killing a teenage girl.
On the day of the shooting, one of the bullets fired from Battle’s gun struck 13-year-old Kelsey Washington, according to authorities.
Washington was shot in the head in the parking lot of Fayette Liquor Plus, near the corner of East Fayette and North Caroline streets in Dunbar-Broadway, on Nov. 7, 2022. She was later pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Baltimore Police reported that their investigation revealed that a man on a mountain bike pulled up to a car in the parking lot, pulled out a gun and started shooting into the vehicle. That’s when someone swung open the front passenger door and appeared to fire back.
Washington immediately dropped to the ground after the initial volley of shots, police reported.
Law enforcement obtained surveillance video and spoke to a witness who identified Battle as the shooter. Police arrested him at a home in Harford County.
WJZ is a media partner of The Baltimore Banner.
