Tuesday morning, city police officers came to his Annabel Avenue house looking for Steven's friend, Wilson said. Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman, said the warrant apprehension task force went to the house to look for a suspect in a recent crime. The Annabel Avenue address came up because the suspect, whose name was not released, was a friend of Steven's.
That evening, Steven left the house. Wilson said he didn't know where his nephew was heading.
About 7:30 p.m., Kenya Johnson, a firefighter-paramedic at Engine Co. 35, was in a firehouse office when he heard a loud bang. He suspected that it was a gunshot and started walking toward the front of the station when he heard someone pounding on the large roll-up garage door and yelling: "Somebody's been shot!"
"I heard the shot. It was a loud shot, not a popgun," Johnson said. "That wasn't a firecracker."
He and other emergency workers rushed outside. Steven was lying on the ground, about 20 feet in front of one of the garage doors. "He wasn't conscious," said Johnson, 34, a former city school teacher. "He was out that fast."
Steven appeared to have been shot once in the torso while riding past the station, Johnson said. His bike lay about two feet away. Paramedics transported Steven to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he died a short time later, police said.
This year, 19 children have been ruled Baltimore homicide victims, compared with 27 last year, according to police data. The Department of Juvenile Services reports that four of those teens, including Steven, who was on probation, were under their watch.
Steven was the third Baltimore 14-year-old to be shot to death this year. The others were Edward Smith on Jan. 14 in the 800 block of Bethune Road and Shaundretta Griffin on April 14 in the 1900 block of Patterson Park Ave.
