Victim’s family draws attention to rap songs allegedly made by teen squeegee worker convicted in fatal shooting – Baltimore Sun

Days before the sentencing of a teenage squeegee worker who shot a bat-wielding man in downtown Baltimore, the man’s relatives called attention Friday to a pair of rap songs the teen purportedly made.

The 16-year-old’s mother shared the raps, which were uploaded to YouTube, in a series of Facebook posts in August — less than a month after the teen was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and firearms offenses in the July 7, 2022, fatal shooting of 48-year-old Timothy Reynolds.

She could not be reached for comment. The Baltimore Sun is not naming the teen because he is a minor.

Rapidly paced, heavily produced and expletive laden, the songs refer to shootings and carrying guns.

Thiru Vignarajah, an attorney for Reynolds’ family, said the family learned about the songs after a media inquiry this week and, after listening to them, believe that certain lyrics referred to their loved one’s killing.

“Everyone — all our friends and all our family — are just absolutely sick,” Reynolds’ widow, Shannon, told reporters Friday outside Baltimore Circuit Court.

Vignarajah filed a victims impact statement in the case late Friday citing the impact of the songs.

The teen’s attorney, Warren Brown, said he doubted whether his client made the songs while incarcerated. Even if it is his client singing, he cautioned against drawing conclusions from song lyrics that could be fabricated.

“That’s what they do, man, they rap,” Brown told The Baltimore Sun. “A lot of it is made up. A lot of it is fantasizing.”

Brown believes teens express themselves and process their experiences through music. His client witnessed a friend get killed, according to a report prepared by the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services to help a judge decide whether the teen would be tried in adult or juvenile court.

“They see these things, they rap about what they see,” Brown said. “If they were in a different environment, they might rap about different things. But when they see the carnage we all read about or see on TV, that’s what they all rap about. It’s no surprise.”

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The Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the teen, declined to answer questions about the songs.

The jury in July acquitted the teen of murder, finding that his actions were partially justified by self defense or the defense of others.

After an initial encounter with squeegee workers that day at the intersection of East Conway and Light streets, Reynolds parked his car, grabbed a baseball bat and crossed several lanes of traffic to confront the window washers. Back and forth aggressions escalated. Reynolds swung the bat in the direction of a squeegee worker. Another member of the group threw an object at Reynolds, hitting him in the head. He was stumbling when the teen shot him five times.

At trial, prosecutors argued the teen was guilty of premeditated murder because he ran and grabbed a crossbody bag with a gun in it and pulled a mask over his face before shooting Reynolds. The teen’s lawyers said he opened fire in defense of an “unprovoked attack” from a grown man with a metal bat.

The teen faces up to 35 years in prison at sentencing Monday.

Brown will argue for him to be committed to the Department of Juvenile Services as punishment. That agency has jurisdiction over a person sentenced to their custody until the person turns 21.

The rap songs add yet another layer of complexity to a case that drew widespread attention, in part, because of its racial, socioeconomic and political undertones. The fatal shooting of a bat-wielding man, who was white, by a Black teenager who was part of a group washing windshields at a bustling intersection by the Inner Harbor reignited the longstanding debate of what city leaders should do about the so-called squeegee workers.