Baltimore police said this morning that the 14-year-old girl charged with killing a man in a robbery earlier this month is not a member of a gang. Authorities had initially believed the killing was linked to a gang initiation.
But department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told reporters at a news conference that the motive in the killing of Jose Rodolfo Gonzalez-Coreas is robbery. Police describe a stunning sequence of events, saying the suspect opened fire when one of the victims laughed at her as she pointed the gun at him.
"They didn't take her seriously because of her age," Guglielmi said. Police arrested and charged Arteesha Holt (seen above) with first-degree murder and several other crimes. They also charged her 18-year-old brother, Shawn Palmer (in the photo above), with being an accomplice to murder for allegedly helping her escape from the neighborhood and by taking the silver .32 caliber revolver off her hands.
Guglielmi described the shooting as heinous. "It speaks to the guns that are out there and the frustrations we in law enforcement have at trying to deal with all this."
The victims in his case were Latinos, two of several who have been attacked in recent weeks in Southeast Baltimore. One of the latest attacks was committed, police say, by a mentally disturbed man who told detectives he hated Mexicans. Guglielmi said the killing involving the girl was during a robbery and not a hate crime.