Shooting rampage trial underway
Mausean Carter faces two charges of murder, 10 of attempted murder
Mausean Carter had enough of the drug dealers in his Park Heights neighborhood. They would hassle him and his girlfriend. They would sit on his silver Lexus. So prosecutors say he armed himself with a .40-caliber handgun and high-powered assault rifle and set out.
“His mission was essentially to kill the drug dealers,” Assistant State’s Attorney Traci Robinson told jurors.
She offered this as Carter’s motive during his trial this week in Baltimore Circuit Court. Carter, 31, is accused of a days-long shooting rampage in December 2017 that killed two people, wounded several others, including innocent bystanders, and ended with a high-speed chase through West Baltimore — a “one-man crime wave,” Robinson called him.
Carter, 31, allegedly fired indiscriminately while trying to elude police. Near Mondawmin Mall, he slowed his car and his girlfriend ran up and pulled him from it. Video cameras captured the harrowing scene.
Carter is charged with two murders, 10 attempted murders and a slew of gun charges.
He confessed in an interview with homicide detectives, Robinson said. But Carter’s public defender urged jurors to consider his client’s words carefully. “Pay close attention. Not only to the content, but to any indications that was a voluntary statement,” Frank Cappiello told the jury. “You will be less than convinced that Mausean is attempting to carry out a series of assassinations.”
The violence began Dec. 8, 2017, when Carter shot into a minivan that cut him off on Edmondson Avenue, Robinson said. Soon, police were alerted to look out for a silver Lexus with tinted windows. One week later, Martrell Harris, 21, was gunned down during a drive-by shooting on Reisterstown Road. A woman told police she was walking behind Harris when she saw gunfire flash from a Lexus. In charging documents, police wrote that Carter admitted to shooting Harris, saying the man had disrespected his girlfriend.
On Thursday, Detective Steve McDonnell told the jury he asked Carter about that killing. “He was upset Mr. Harris and some of his associates were harassing him and his girlfriend,” McDonnell said.
Carter also allegedly committed a series of drive-by shootings: blasting the .40caliber at men standing on West Cold Spring Lane, firing the assault rifle into a New York Fried Chicken restaurant. The restaurant owner was shot in his leg while waiting for a delivery of bread.
On Dec. 15, police spotted the Lexus and tried to pull it over. Carter took off, leading police on a 45-minute chase through West Baltimore. He allegedly shot into passing cars. Carter also shot into the car of another couple whowere driving their handyman to Home Depot, Robinson said, wounding the handyman in his head. He’s permanently disabled and suffers seizures.
On Thursday, Robinson showed jurors footage from surveillance cameras outside the O’s Super Mart in West Baltimore. A silver Lexus passes slowly. From the driver’s window comes the flash of gunfire. Inside, two men were wounded, and paramedics found the cashier doubled over in the back. He had been shot once in the top of his head. A devout Muslim, he had been kneeling saying his evening prayers.