[Chat] Firebombing at Edna McAbier's house

[Emil Volcheck]

Steve Gewirtz found this article on the Sun's website.  People are
pretty sure that this is Edna McAbier, president of the Harwood
Community Association.  At the last CVCBD Board meeting, she was
talking about the drug dealing on her block.

This is a bit scary.  I hope they got the right guys.

--Emil


Four held in attack on home of activist

Harwood resident unhurt in firebombing; Woman was helping city police

By Richard Irwin
Sun Staff

Originally published January 17, 2005

Four young men were in custody yesterday and may face federal charges
in the firebombing this weekend of the North Baltimore home of a woman
described by Baltimore police as an outspoken community activist, city
police said.

The firebombing was described by police spokesman Matt Jablow as
retaliation for the woman helping authorities by providing information
about drug trafficking in her Harwood neighborhood, just east of
Charles Village.

About 1:30 a.m. Saturday, four Molotov cocktails - glass bottles
filled with a flammable fluid and fitted with a wick - were thrown
against the outside wall of the woman's East Lorraine Avenue home,
said Sgt. John Wallace of the city police arson squad.

Two of the devices ignited, setting fires that caused minor damage to
the home's exterior, he said.

Wallace said the woman was in bed at the time, and went to her window
when she saw flames rising from the front of her home and called 911
to alert the Fire Department.

Jablow declined to identify the 59-year-old woman, who was not
injured. He said that she has been relocated out of concern for her
safety and that her home was put under a protective 24- hour watch by
city police.

Wallace said city arson detectives and agents of the federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested four suspects at
various locations.

Arrested Saturday night were Jackie Brewington, 18, of the 4100 block
of Marx Ave. in Northeast Baltimore and Antonino Newsome, 18, of the
300 block of E. Lorraine Ave. Two other suspects, Andre Wilkins, 31,
of Randallstown and Richard M. Royal, 20, of the 600 block of Wyanoke
Ave., were arrested last night at their homes, said Detective Aaron
Perkins.

"We worked round the clock on this one," Perkins said.

All four suspects have been charged with attempted arson and
possession of destructive devices, and were being held at Central
Booking and Intake Center, police said.

"The case of firebombing the woman's home will be presented to the
U.S. attorney's office on Tuesday for prosecution, and more arrests
are expected," Jablow said.

"Crimes like this strike at the very heart of the criminal justice
system," he said. "We cannot and will not tolerate it. With a crime
such as this, they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the
law."

An East Baltimore firebombing in October 2002 that left a couple and
five of their children dead - retaliation against the mother for
complaining to police about neighborhood drug trafficking - was
prosecuted in federal court, where a small-time dealer pleaded guilty
and received a life sentence.

-- 
Emil Volcheck
volcheck at acm.org
http://acm.org/~volcheck