Squeegee worker, 16, who fatally shot man with bat in Baltimore sentenced to 15 years

A 16-year-old who shot and killed a man after he confronted a group of squeegee workers with a baseball bat near the Inner Harbor in Baltimore was sentenced on Monday to serve 15 years in prison, marking the end of a case that reverberated throughout the city and sparked policy changes surrounding the practice of window washing.

As she handed down the sentence for voluntary manslaughter and related crimes after several hours of testimony, Baltimore Circuit Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer said her heart went out to the family of Timothy Reynolds, 48, of Hampden. The teen fatally shot him at the intersection of Light and Conway streets, not far from Oriole Park at Camden Yards, after 4:30 p.m. on July 7, 2022.

Schiffer said there were two facts that were indisputable. First, she said, there was no sentence that she could impose that would bring him back. Second, she said, the teen will one day be released from prison.

“There are no winners here,” said Schiffer, who added that she wanted to order a punishment that both protected public safety and provided for rehabilitation.

“This court has no intention of discarding the defendant as irredeemable,” she added. “In fact, the opposite is true.”

But Schiffer said she felt it was important to note some of the facts and circumstances of the crime.

The teen retrieved a backpack containing a 9 mm handgun, covered his face with a ski mask and fired five times, Schiffer said. And the shooting happened on a crowded street, she said, in broad daylight.

He was 14 at the time and went to Digital Harbor High School. The Baltimore Banner is not identifying him because he is a minor.

His mother, Aijah Gatson, started to cry inside the packed courtroom as the judge read the sentence. The teen must serve the first five years in prison without the possibility of parole, and he has to spend a consecutive five years on probation.

Squeegee workers are primarily young Black men who wash windows at various intersections in the hopes of receiving tips. Some admire their entrepreneurial spirit and feel that they are simply trying to make quick cash to survive, while others view what they do as a potentially dangerous nuisance.

Following the shooting, Mayor Brandon Scott convened the Squeegee Collaborative comprising 150 young people, city officials and health care and business leaders. The city implemented several policies from the group, including a ban on squeegeeing at six highly trafficked roads.

Assistant State’s Attorney Cynthia Banks asked the judge to hand down the maximum sentence: 35 years in prison.

Banks acknowledged that it was a difficult case and contended that the teen could be helped at the Patuxent Institution, a maximum security prison that’s focused on providing treatment. She unsuccessfully argued at trial that the shooting was first-degree murder, which is a deliberate, premeditated and willful killing.

“It is not OK to take a person’s life when you could have retreated,” Banks said. “You didn’t have to do it.”

“It has to stop,” she later added. “And accountability must occur.”

Reynolds, she said, paid for the mistake he made with his life.

Family members and friends of Reynolds recalled how he was funny, quick-witted, nerdy and smart. He was an engineer who graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the Johns Hopkins University, as well as a loving father of three. They recounted how his killing has left a void in their lives.

His sister, Becky Reynolds, said he marched to the beat of his own drum and was a fan of the Orioles and Ravens.

She said she replays the video of his final moments in her mind over and over again.

“The defendant didn’t just kill my brother,” Becky Reynolds said. “He killed my life with him.”

Trey Tomaschko, Timothy Reynolds’ best friend, lamented that the world has become a “less-nice place to live” and noted that “regardless of the sentencing, my friend is still dead.”

Meanwhile, Shannon Reynolds recalled how she was in bed one night with her husband — a “big kid at heart” — singing ’80s songs. The next day, she said, two police officers came to the door to inform her that he was dead.

His children, Natalie, Dylan and Alexis, lost their protector and hero. They’ve been robbed, she said, of their “gentle giant” and “supergenius.”

“I lost my best friend and soulmate that day,” Shannon Reynolds said. “He was everything to me.”

Later, Alexis Reynolds recalled how her father would do anything for his children. “It’s been really hard to do life,” she said.

J. Wyndal Gordon and Warren Brown, the teen’s attorneys, unsuccessfully asked the judge to send the case to the juvenile justice system. They both questioned the identification of their client but argued that the shooter acted in self-defense or in defense of others at trial.

Brown accused the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office of pandering in the case, noting that the sentencing guidelines for voluntary manslaughter called for a punishment that range from three to eight years in prison.

Reynolds, he said, was not shot until after he swung the baseball bat.

“There’s a reason this happened,” Brown said. “This is not a predatory act.”

They called several witnesses ranging from the teen’s family members to people in the community, including one woman who declared, “I know what has been happening here is racist.”

The teen’s grandmother, Tonia McClain, told the judge that “no one won in this situation.”

People have “crucified him,” she said. “He’s not a menace to society. He’s a child.”

McClain said her grandson has always been a protector and was forced to make a difficult decision. She said she knows that he can change.

Later, the teen, who wore a yellow jumpsuit, stood up and addressed the court. He said he was sorry to the Reynolds family for their loss and sent his condolences.

The young man spoke about how he’s worked while incarcerated in the youth detention center to improve his decision-making and build healthy habits. He said he wants to be a role model and use his story to inspire people to change.

“I’m determined to turn my life around,” he said. “Judge, I pray you will see my sincerity.”

Thiru Vignarajah, an attorney for the Reynolds family, told reporters that loved ones knew that no sentence was ever going to be enough. Said Vignarajah: “The notion that anything short of the maximum sentence was fitting in this case is hard to stomach.”

dylan.segelbaum@thebaltimorebanner.com