Shooting victims from 1984, 2016 die from injuries; ruled homicides

Rep. Swalwell alleges former president, others incited riot

Baltimore has gone a week without a fatal shooting, but added two new cases with the deaths of men shot in years past.

One case dates to 1984.

Police said that Preston Hill was shot multiple on May 29, 1984, in the 2300 block of E. Oliver St. He was 28 at the time, and paralyzed from the waist down, police said.

He was found dead in Baltimore County on Dec. 9, 2020, and an autopsy concluded that his death was the result of complications from the shooting 36 years earlier. Police spokesman Donny Moses said that the case was never solved at the time and remains open.

In the second case, 29-year-old Kendrick Hasty was shot on Oct. 14, 2016, in the 1600 block of Mountmoor Ct., and died on Nov. 18, 2020. Hasty’s autopsy also concluded that his death was the result of his injuries from the shooting.

His case also remains open.

Shelly Hasty, his aunt, said he was a kindhearted and “happy-go-lucky” person who stayed out of trouble. He worked in sanitation. His injuries were devastating, and he suffered memory loss, like not being able to recall that his mother had died, Shelly Hasty said.

“I miss him. I can still hear his voice,” she said.

Both cases, per FBI guidelines, are added to the city’s homicide count for 2021. The FBI instructs police departments to count such cases for the year in which the determination is made, so that prior year’s statistics are not constantly revised.

So far in 2021, there have been five fewer homicides than this time last year — 46 people have been killed, including prior year cases, compared to 51 at this time last year. Non-fatal shootings are up 15%, with 102 people shot and wounded, compared to 89 at this time last year.

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WASHINGTON — Rep. Eric Swalwell, who served as a House manager in Donald Trump’s last impeachment trial, filed a lawsuit Friday against the former president, his son, lawyer and a Republican congressman whose actions he charges led to January’s insurrection.

The California Democrat’s suit, filed in federal court in Washington, alleges a conspiracy to violate civil rights, along with negligence, inciting a riot and inflicting emotional distress. It follows a similar suit filed by Rep. Bennie Thompson last month in an attempt to hold the former president accountable in some way for his actions Jan. 6, following his acquittal in the Senate.

SwalwellchargesthatTrump,hissonDonald Jr., along with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., had made “false and incendiary allegations of fraud and theft, and in direct response to the Defendant’s express calls for violence at the rally, a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol.”

The lawsuit spells out in detail how the

Trumps, Giuliani and Brooks spread baseless claims of election fraud, both before and after the 2020 presidential election was declared, and charges that they helped to spin up the thousands of rioters before they stormed the Capitol. Five people died as a result of the Jan. 6 violence, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer.

Trump’s spokesman Jason Miller called Swalwell a “low-life” with “no credibility.”

“Now, after failing miserably with two impeachment hoaxes,” Swalwell is attacking “our greatest President with yet another witch hunt,” Miller said in a statement. “It’s a disgrace that a compromised Member of Congress like Swalwell still sits on the House Intelligence Committee.”

Brooks said the lawsuit was frivolous and “a meritless ploy.”

“I make no apologies whatsoever for fighting for accurate and honest elections,” he said, adding he wore the lawsuit “like a badge of courage.”

The lawsuit, through Trump’s own words, accuses the former president of inciting the riot, using much of the same playbook used by Swalwell and others during Trump’s impeachment trial — that his lies over the election results stirred supporters into the false belief the2020electionhadbeenstolen,thatheegged the angry mob on through his rally speech and thathedidnothingwhenfacedwiththeimages ofthrongsofhissupporterssmashingwindows at the Capitol and sending lawmakers fleeing.

“Those with knowledge claimed that during this moment of national horror, Trump was ‘delighted’ and was ‘confused about why other peopleonhisteamweren’tasexcitedashewas.’ Others described Trump as ‘borderline enthusiastic’ about the unfolding violence,” the suit said.

Unlike Thompson’s lawsuit — filed against Trump, Giuliani and some far-right extremist groups whose members are alleged to have participated in the insurrection — Swalwell’s did not specify whether he was filing in his personal or official capacity, which would require additional approvals from the House and involve House attorneys.

Both lawsuits cite a federal civil rights law that was enacted to counter the Ku Klux Klan’s intimidation of officials. Swalwell attorney Philip Andonian praised Thompson’s lawsuit, filed under a Reconstruction-era law called the Ku Klux Klan Act, and said they were behind it 100%, but saw the need for this one too.

“We see ourselves as having a different angle to this, holding Trump accountable for the incitement, the disinformation,” he said.

Presidents are historically afforded broad immunity from lawsuits for actions they take in their role as commander in chief. But the lawsuit,liketheonebyThompson,wasbrought against Trump in his personal, not official, capacity.

Swalwell also describes in detail being trappedwithmanyothermembersofCongress as plainclothes Capitol Police officers barricaded the doors and tried to fend off the mob at gunpoint.

“Fearing for their lives, the Plaintiff and others masked their identities as members of Congress, texted loved ones in case the worst happened, and took shelter throughout the Capitol complex,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit alleges that Brooks “conspired with the other Defendants to undermine the election results by alleging, without evidence, that the election had been rigged and by pressuring elected officials, courts, and ultimately Congress to reject the results.” It notes that he spokeatarallysupportingTrumpattheEllipse, near the White House, shortly before thousands of pro-Trump rioters made their way to the Capitol and overwhelmed police officers to shove their way inside the building.

The suit seeks unspecified damages, and Swalwell also wants a court to order all of the defendants to provide written notice to him a week before they plan to have a rally in Washington that would draw more than 50 people.