Biker on trial in mass shooting at Thunderguards Motorcycle Club memorial in East Baltimore

The Thunderguards Motorcycle Club was holding a memorial service for a member at its clubhouse on North Spring Street in East Baltimore on Aug. 18, 2024, when Anthony “Chris” Martin fired his gun one time into the air.

He had argued with bikers over a parking spot on North Caroline Street in Oliver, and the dispute percolated throughout the evening, Assistant State’s Attorney Rita Wisthoff-Ito told a jury in the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse.

Martin, she said, then returned to the basketball court at nearby Caroline & Hoffman Park.

But Eric Kibler kept watching Martin and talking with other people, Wisthoff-Ito said. Then multiple gunmen opened fire.

“It sounds like a war zone,” Wisthoff-Ito said in her opening statement. “At a minimum, 14 guns are used.”

Kibler, she said, fatally shot Martin and wounded seven other people.

Though Martin had been drinking and could have made different choices, he did not deserve to be executed, Wisthoff-Ito said. He was 36.

Prosecutors began presenting their case Friday against Kibler, 44, of Hagerstown, who’s standing trial in Baltimore Circuit Court on charges including first-degree murder, attempted murder and use of a handgun during the commission of a crime of violence.

Wisthoff-Ito called seven witnesses, including crime lab technicians and detectives who testified about the steps they took to document and collect evidence. She also played surveillance video.

“We noticed several people shot,” said Baltimore Police Sgt. Alan Edwards, one of the officers who responded to the mass shooting. “The scene was chaotic.”

But Kibler’s attorney, Tony Garcia, argued that no witnesses will testify that they saw his client fire a gun.

Kibler was armed, but he was minding his own business at the memorial service when Martin shot into the air, Garcia said.

Police, he noted, have not arrested anyone else in the shooting. He compared what unfolded to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

“My client is not guilty of murder,” Garcia said in his opening statement. “There’s no evidence he shot any of these people.”

Before testimony began, Circuit Judge Alan C. Lazerow asked Wisthoff-Ito to place the plea offer in the case on the record.

The proposal called for Kibler to serve life, suspending all but 50 years in prison.

Lazerow then asked Kibler whether he wished to accept or reject the offer.

“Reject,” Kibler replied.