Angela Dawson

The word of the week, "hope," was written on a whiteboard for East Baltimore students - part of an after-school program on the site where an arsonist killed Angela Dawson, her husband and five of their children a decade ago. The children who come to the Dawson Family Safe Haven won't run into trouble like that, organizers say, not if their plan works. "Standing here now you can hear children laughing and talking," said Pamela V. Carter, a former city councilwoman who runs the programs in the home that was set afire by a drug dealer in retaliation for Dawson's complaints to police.

Ten years ago, a woman who wanted her children to live in a drug-free environment, and who called police on those who would have it otherwise, was killed when a man tied to the local drug trade kicked in the front door of her home in Oliver and set it ablaze. At an event Tuesday night marking the deaths of Angela Dawson, her husband and five children in the fire, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the message being sent that night in 2002 was clear: that community members "should keep your mouth shut, that you shouldn't speak out, that you can't win. " Rawlings-Blake's message to the more than 100 community members gathered at the event outside the Dawson Family Safe Haven Center, which was built in the ashes of the Dawson's destroyed home, was just the opposite, she said.

In Baltimore City Man, 36, sentenced for killing of teen A Baltimore County man was sentenced to 25 years in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to killing a 16-year-old boy last year in West Baltimore, according to the state's attorney's office. James Keith Ford, 36, of the 3900 block of Rolling Road pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a handgun violation in Baltimore City Circuit Court. Judge John M. Glynn sentenced Ford to 25 years for the murder conviction and to 20 years -- to be served concurrently -- for the gun charge.

The word of the week, "hope," was written on a whiteboard for East Baltimore students - part of an after-school program on the site where an arsonist killed Angela Dawson, her husband and five of their children a decade ago. The children who come to the Dawson Family Safe Haven won't run into trouble like that, organizers say, not if their plan works. "Standing here now you can hear children laughing and talking," said Pamela V. Carter, a former city councilwoman who runs the programs in the home that was set afire by a drug dealer in retaliation for Dawson's complaints to police.

A 21-year-old man pleaded not guilty yesterday to federal charges of setting a fatal fire last year that killed seven members of an East Baltimore family and touched off widespread outrage against the city's culture of drugs and violence. Darrell L. Brooks, wearing a long-sleeved black T-shirt and blue jeans, quietly entered his plea in federal court before U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis. Brooks is charged in a 10-count indictment with setting a fire Oct. 16 at the rented rowhouse in the 1400 block of E. Preston St. where Carnell and Angela Dawson lived with their five children.

A small-time East Baltimore drug dealer admitted burning the home of a neighbor he believed was "snitching on people" and just before being sentenced to life in prison yesterday tearfully told relatives of the seven victims that he had wished for his own death as punishment. Relatives of Carnell and Angela Dawson and their five children, who were killed in the blaze at their East Preston Street rowhouse in October, sobbed as Darrell L. Brooks, 22, faced them in a crowded federal courtroom and shakily apologized for the crime, which outraged the city and drew national attention to Baltimore's struggle against deadly violence.

Two Molotov cocktails crashed through the windows of Angela and Carnell Dawson's East Baltimore house two weeks ago, and as the place filled with suffocating smoke, the couple grabbed their five children and frantically groped their way out. "My husband and I gathered our babies and led them to safety," Angela Dawson said in a handwritten account for authorities. "Before getting out of the [house], we experienced choking from the smoke and could hardly see how to get to the door. The heat was very intense coming from the kitchen.

IN THE DAYS that followed the holocaust on East Preston Street - as he held his own newborn son - Mayor Martin O'Malley repeatedly asked himself: What could have been done? How could we have saved Angela Dawson, her husband and five children? "Everything and nothing," he told a throng of mourners standing in front of the charred death chamber a few days after the fire. The choice remains for this city as it enters a new year. We could always have done more in a poor neighborhood threatened by the drug trade, the mayor was saying.

A city man accused of torching a neighbor's home and killing six family members could have been jailed months ago because he never reported to his probation agent, state officials said. They acknowledged yesterday that they failed to properly supervise Darrell L. Brooks, who was on probation at the time he is accused of setting a fire that killed Angela Dawson and her five children in their East Baltimore home early Wednesday morning. "To date we have not found any documented contact [with a probation agent]

A woman with a modest rowhouse and a clear view of the drug activity that endangered and cheapened the streets of her Oliver neighborhood thought that if she reported it to the police, if she did something , it would help. Deep in the night on Oct. 15, 2002, a young man with a long criminal record retaliated by pouring gasoline on her house and lighting a fire that killed Angela Dawson, along with her husband and five children. The tragedy saddened the city deeply, but frustrated it more.

A woman with a modest rowhouse and a clear view of the drug activity that endangered and cheapened the streets of her Oliver neighborhood thought that if she reported it to the police, if she did something , it would help. Deep in the night on Oct. 15, 2002, a young man with a long criminal record retaliated by pouring gasoline on her house and lighting a fire that killed Angela Dawson, along with her husband and five children. The tragedy saddened the city deeply, but frustrated it more.

With the ceremonial ribbon just cut and its rooms mostly empty but for the scent of new paint, the Dawson Family Safe Haven Center hasn't yet become whatever it is destined to become. And yet, on its corner of Preston and Eden in East Baltimore, one thing is clear. This is hallowed ground. This is, as Mayor Martin O'Malley repeated several times yesterday, "a holy place." In a neighborhood with numerous boarded-up rowhouses and a police camera blinking a harsh blue eye, 1401 E. Preston St. is not an obvious Gettysburg, or a Ground Zero.

ANGUISHED ORATORY at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen recently was meant to comfort the children of slain Baltimore police Officer Brian D. Winder. He was a man who believed that family and kids were just about all that matter. He wanted to defend the people he grew up with. He had a wry sense of humor. He loved to dance. Some day, his children will read the eulogies and be proud. But on the day of his funeral, 7-year-old Brandon Winder spoke for the city as his father's flag-draped casket was lifted into the brilliant sunlight outside the church.

In Baltimore City Man, 36, sentenced for killing of teen A Baltimore County man was sentenced to 25 years in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to killing a 16-year-old boy last year in West Baltimore, according to the state's attorney's office. James Keith Ford, 36, of the 3900 block of Rolling Road pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a handgun violation in Baltimore City Circuit Court. Judge John M. Glynn sentenced Ford to 25 years for the murder conviction and to 20 years -- to be served concurrently -- for the gun charge.

A small-time East Baltimore drug dealer admitted burning the home of a neighbor he believed was "snitching on people" and just before being sentenced to life in prison yesterday tearfully told relatives of the seven victims that he had wished for his own death as punishment. Relatives of Carnell and Angela Dawson and their five children, who were killed in the blaze at their East Preston Street rowhouse in October, sobbed as Darrell L. Brooks, 22, faced them in a crowded federal courtroom and shakily apologized for the crime, which outraged the city and drew national attention to Baltimore's struggle against deadly violence.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings is proposing a bill called the Dawson Family Community Protection Act that would provide up to $1 million annually to Baltimore and other cities that are battling severe drug problems and violent crime. Cummings will hold a hearing on the proposed bill today at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Named after Angela and Carnell Dawson and their five children, who died from injuries sustained in an arson fire at their East Preston Street home in October, the bill could come up on the House floor as early as this week.

WE KNOW WHAT Angela Dawson said - that no drug dealer or other lowlife would run her family out of their rowhouse in East Baltimore. Her husband, Carnell Dawson, had the same attitude. I never had a chance to speak to the Dawsons, and it's too late for that now. But the official police account speaks to their defiance and determination: Even after their house was firebombed the first time, on Oct. 3, they would not leave. Let's go over this quickly. After the first attack, the Dawsons refused relocation through the witness protection program of the Baltimore state's attorney's office.

The former witness protection officer for the Baltimore state's attorney's office contended yesterday that the office failed to do all it could to protect the Dawsons, the family of seven who police said were killed in a retaliatory arson last year in East Baltimore. State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy called the allegations untrue, saying the Dawsons declined to be relocated by her office -- an offer made after an earlier attempt on the family's lives. The Dawsons were killed in an October house fire that police believe was set because the family complained to authorities about drug dealing in their Oliver neighborhood.