Maurice Gordon-Bey Sr. (back right) and an unidentified man beat a young man they suspect might be associated with the killing of Gordon-Bey's 15-year-old son, Maurice Gordon.
(Sun photo by Monica Lopossay)
Jun 14, 2007




Jill Jenkins uses her body to protect that of a young man she and her husband, Maurice Gordon-Bey Sr., suspect may be associated with the killing Wednesday of their son, Maurice Gordon.
(Sun photo by Monica Lopossay)
Jun 14, 2007


Rage emerges in city as family mourns a son
By Annie Linskey
sun reporter
Originally published June 15, 2007
Mabel Gordon pasted snapshots of her 15-year-old grandson, Maurice, on poster board, a makeshift memorial to the boy who died from a bullet as he sat on a neighbor's front porch surrounded by friends.

As she showed the pictures to grieving family members at their Reservoir Hill home yesterday afternoon, a boy walked toward the group.





The victim's sister, Jennifer Martin, 17, started to cry. The victim's mother, Jill Jenkins, yelled. And the father, Maurice Gordon-Bey Sr., dropped a phone he was holding and ran after the boy.

Gordon-Bey caught up with him in a grassy field across from the Linden Avenue house. He slapped the boy in the head. Then punched him in the face.

Jill Jenkins chased after the pair, trying to hold back Gordon-Bey. But he pushed her off and continued to hit the boy. The youth struggled and fell to the ground.

Gordon-Bey kicked him over and over again, hitting his head, as Jenkins threw her body over the boy, trying to protect him from the man's rage.

"You set him up!" Gordon-Bey yelled. "You set my son up! He was only 15!"

Another man joined the fight. Others tried to stop it. Police were called.

Then the fight broke up. The boy limped away. The family members and friends who had gathered to mourn walked back toward the house. Everyone was breathing hard. Nobody said anything.

It is unclear why Gordon-Bey reacted with such anger. Martin said the boy was one of the people sitting on the porch with her brother when he was shot early Wednesday. Police have not made an arrest in the case.

City police officers were investigating the incident. Matt Jablow, a police spokesman, said that officers would increase patrols in the Reservoir Hill neighborhood.

Moments before the fight, Gordon-Bey, who showed a Baltimore Department of Public Works badge, was talking about the senselessness of his son's killing, the third teenager killed in the city this week. "He was not involved with drugs," he said. "Random violence. It is past crazy."

He and other family members were wearing "Rest in Peace" T-shirts that Gordon-Bey had made as a tribute to his son. The boy's name, Maurice Gordon, and his nickname, "Marty," were printed on the shirt, along with a picture of him that his mother took the day before he died.

Family members talked about how Maurice loved math and had just started becoming interested in English as a ninth-grader at Paul Laurence Dunbar Senior High School. He was tall, almost 6 foot 6, and hoped to be an architect, said Jenkins, who works at Sinai Hospital.

Maurice had not gotten into trouble with police, Jenkins said. But she acknowledged that he had been suspended from school a few times. "He got picked on," she said.

His father said Maurice got into trouble only for defending himself.

His passions included basketball, video games and rapper Lil' Wayne, and Jenkins showed a picture of Maurice taken in March, when he took his infant cousin to the zoo for her birthday. In the past few weeks, he had purchased an air conditioner for the family. Before he went out Tuesday night, his mother said, he cleaned his room and took out the trash.

Police said Maurice was shot before 2 a.m. Wednesday. He was sitting on the front porch of a neighbor's house in the 2500 block of Linden Ave. when a masked gunman came up to the group and fired, police and family said. Two other friends were with him when he was shot.

Jennifer, his sister, said she had been on the porch with Maurice but had left minutes before the gunman arrived because she was cold. "I heard the gunshots," she said. She ran to him. "He was in shock that he was shot," she recalled. He was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma Center at 2:30 a.m.

annie.linskey@baltsun.com

ew



Who knows what I would do in that situation though.

he is one chunky motherfucker.

That is downright out of order...i know i would feel the same thought IF HE WAS CONVICTED....it aint justice if he is just a suspect its fucking lynch gang mentality

So the dad of the murdered boy beats the suspect while the mother of the murdered boy protects him!

CynthiasSocks said:

The dad of the murdered boy beats the suspect BEFORE the mother of the murdered boy protects him!

PANDURITO said:

yeah, dad beat his ass first then mom stepped in. but honestly, I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing as the dad if it was someone that close to me.

Just a sad fuckin' state of affairs.....

..... shit like that is so preventable....but instead of spending money on education and shit that would help keep folks from losing their kids to the violence, the G spends HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS on a war 5 time zones away...

...what the fuck are we doing?

reneGade20 said:

exactly. For a fraction of the price of that war, or a fraction of what it cost to groom you (what, with the hair, skin, and other products and stuff ), we could really make a difference in society.

I hope and pray you make it back safely though. I appreciate your service.

Imago said:

Imago said:

HEY!! Stay on topic, dammit!!! My grooming is a necessary evil of the budget...