Family of teen killed at Edmondson Village shopping center calls for justice
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BALTIMORE — Baltimore police have identified the teen killed after he and four other students were shot Wednesday morning at Edmondson Village Shopping Center.
The victim was identified as 16-year-old Deonta Dorsey.
Attorney Thiru Vignarajah, representing Dorsey’s family, called for justice for the slain teen on Thursday, saying police should treat the case as they might in a wealthier neighborhood like Canton or Federal Hill.
“This family is asking politely that you treat this case like it was your child,” he said, standing at the location of the shooting with Dorsey’s family behind him. “Because if this murder had happened in a different part of town, they’d have assigned three detectives who work around the clock and collect as many overtime hours as they need to solve this case. Do unto Deonta what you would do there.”
The students attend Edmondson Westside High School, which is across the street from where the shooting took place.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said the students were in front of the Ritas and Popeyes when two suspects fired multiple rounds, and then took off behind the building.
Two 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds survived the shooting. Dorsey’s family is calling on anyone with information to step forward.
Vignarajah said the family is also calling on city leaders to “do your jobs,” because “skipping school or cutting class for lunch should not result in a death sentence.”
The attorney claims an “open-air drug market” operates near the school, which “operates like a mall where kids go in and out as they please.”
Lastly, Vignarajah said, the family asked that Baltimore doesn’t forget Deonta Dorsey’s name.
“The mass shooting in West Baltimore yesterday has shattered our lives in ways that only an unlucky few will ever understand. We ask that you pray for our family and for the families of the other four children shot in the middle of the school day,” the family said in a statement released Thursday by Vignarajah.
School officials canceled Thursday classes at Edmondson Westside High School following the shooting. Instead, they will be offering counseling on the school premises that day and lunch services for students in search of a meal.
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