Due to the holiday weekend, this week’s column only covers murders from June 26 to June 30. According to police, one murder was taken off the official count. The March 22 death of Said Sawab in a fire in the 5500 block of Gwynn Oak Avenue has been removed from the rolls pending an official decision by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program on whether it will be classified as a murder or accidental death. The removal of this murder makes Baltimore City’s homicide number and Murder Ink’s the same.
There were several errors in the information we received from Baltimore Police Department spokesman Troy Harris about the June 19 murder of Ryan Mills (Murder Ink, June 21). Mills was actually shot at about 8:30 p.m. He was 23 years old and was pronounced dead at St. Agnes Hospital at 9:21 p.m. According to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, the correct spelling of the last name of the man charged with killing Mills is Deshazo.
Monday, June 26
7:50 a.m. Clyde Lewis, an 80-year-old African-American man, saw Thomas Batty, a 66-year-old African-American man, standing behind the front desk of the apartment building where they both lived in the 300 block of McMechen Street in Bolton Hill. The two men had an argument three days earlier. When they saw each other they began arguing again, and according to police Lewis pulled out a gun and shot Batty in the head, killing him. Lewis then went out to the courtyard, sat down, and waited for police. He was arrested and charged with Batty’s murder.
