Brutal Bolton Hill carjacking attempt sidelines dreamer

Each time I reach a certain intersection on the edge of Bolton Hill, I get cupola envy.

I fantasize about scaling the granite walls of the Hawley-Hutzler mansion — or maybe getting invited inside to take the stairs — so I can roost in the thirdstory cupola that caps the mansion’s corner on Eutaw Place.

I imagine sitting up there and reading a book, then looking out to the sprawling view of southwestern Baltimore or a police helicopter flying by.

The Victorian mansion — all 8,000 square feet of it — came up for sale a few years ago. Ward Bucher, an awarding-winning restoration architect, and his wife, Lisa Johnson, a fundraiser for nonprofits, bought the place and moved in.

They have been renovating it ever since. It’s their dream project, returning the home of one of Baltimore’s storied families to its historic best.

The couple’s long-term plan includes removing the ugly chain link fence a previous owner attached to the cupola, and Bucher wants to restore its original ornate fretwork of “moons and stars.”

But, to do that, he must himself be restored.

Bucher, who is 77, suffered a physically and emotionally damaging attack on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 7, when a group of boys beat him and tried to steal his car.

According to police, Bucher and his son, Jack, were unloading groceries outside the mansion about 6:45 p.m. when a black SUV stopped alongside their vehicle.

Another black SUV pulled up behind them. The occupants, described as teenagers, jumped out and started beating Bucher, demanding his car key.

One of the boys smacked Bucher in his left ear. A blow to the back sent him to the pavement.

The teens attacked Jack, too, but Jack managed to protect his father before the attempted carjacking ended.

“A neighbor saw it and shouted out her window,” reports Bill Hamilton, editor of the Bolton Hill Bulletin.

“Someone called the police, but by the time they arrived the would-be carjackers had raced away.”

Jack Bucher had minor injuries. His father sustained a fractured clavicle, fractures in two vertebrae, a broken rib and head trauma.

Bucher had to have surgery to drain a buildup of blood in his brain. He’s lost 20 pounds since the attack.

“We don’t know what the long-term cognitive effects for my husband will be,” said his wife and caregiver. The attack and its aftermath, she added, has been “like a tornado blasting through our house.”

Bucher and Johnson have been jarred by the hard reality of Baltimore, a city they say they love, and its current crime affliction — carjackings by juveniles.

Criminal acts by minors in Maryland account for just a fraction of the state’s total each year, and the Department of Juvenile Services says youth crime is mostly down from a decade ago.

But certain crimes by kids rose significantly from Fiscal Year 2020 to Fiscal Year 2023 — car thefts by 67%, carjackings by 85% and gun offenses by 220%, according to DJS.

A constant over time is this: Children are more likely to be victims of crime, including homicides, than perpetrators.

The DJS report I cited, from September, found a four-fold increase in the number of kids victimized by gun violence over the last 10 years.

I add these facts for perspective, confident that none matters at this depressing moment to Ward Bucher, a man who has pursued a dream to restore a 19th Century Baltimore mansion, an act of faith and hope in Our City of Perpetual Recovery.

It’s also a depressing tale for anyone who opts for city life despite all the tradeoffs we make to live here, starting with the dreary, daily, draining consciousness of crime.

Bucher’s wife, Lisa, says a friend came up with $30,000 toward a reward for the arrest of the perpetrators of the attack on her husband. I directed her and the donor to Metro Crime Stoppers.

“We want them caught,” she said. “I mean, they could be doing this to other people.”

But Johnson is looking for answers beyond arrests.

“Lisa’s not thinking of leaving town,” Hamilton says. “She just wants to stop those intent on doing harm [and] make the city … safer for the next family that dares to move into Baltimore.”

Before we spoke, Johnson offered these thoughts in an email:

“Since what happened to [Ward] and my son could happen to any one of us at any time, the question is, how can we make a better, safer city [and] a smarter, safer neighborhood?

For example, we could engage professionals to perform comprehensive studies of the neighborhood’s street lighting grid, eastwest traffic patterns and where license tag cameras and street cameras could be installed. One idea would be to turn neighborhood streets into one-way roads with angled parking. The intention would be to limit the quick east-west and on-ramp getaway arteries. … We need to make our neighborhood(s) difficult, unattractive and uncomfortable to rob or attack … instead of being havens where people can easily be preyed upon.”

“Right now,” she added when we spoke, “we’re just kind of like sitting ducks.”

You have to appreciate and respect the earnestness of Lisa Johnson’s ideas, offered in the aftermath of the “tornado blasting through” the house she and her husband want to fix and preserve.

It shows resolve, a determination to stay and fight.

I hope they do. I hope Ward Bucher gets to finish the job, maybe with the help of friends. I hope he gets to adorn the old cupola with moons and stars.