Two years ago, Jermaine Jordan's family sent him to a Georgia military school, not because of disciplinary problems, but to help him escape the violence consuming his East Baltimore neighborhood.

Home for a two-week vacation Sunday, the 15-year-old was shot in the back and killed, allegedly by a 77-year-old man who fired at a group of four teen-agers, one of whom had thrown a brick at his gray 1984 Cadillac.

The case is closely parallel to that of Nathaniel Hurt, who four years ago fatally shot 13-year-old Vernon Holmes, who was among a group of children vandalizing Hurt's car outside his East Baltimore home. Gov. Parris N. Glendening commuted the 65-year-old man's five-year prison sentence in December after he had served 14 months.

Jermaine's family, grieving yesterday in a house one block from the shooting, said a stiffer sentence for Hurt would have sent a warning that shooting at and killing children is no way to deal with disruptive youth.

"The message for this city should be that people can't do what they want to do," said Veronica Williams, 41, the victim's aunt. "We have laws. I can't go out and shoot somebody because I don't want them playing near my car. I don't care about the [suspect's] age. I want justice to be served."

Police charged Albert Sims yesterday afternoon with first-degree murder and using a handgun in the commission of a felony. Sims lives alone in the only occupied dwelling in the 1600 block of Llewelyn Ave., an isolated dead-end street ravaged with trash and debris from 19 condemned rowhouses.

A court commissioner yesterday ordered Sims held without bail at the Central Booking and Intake Center. Sims, who police said has no criminal record, could have a bail hearing with a judge today.

He was arrested in his two-story brick rowhouse about 3 a.m. yesterday by officers who broke down his door with a battering ram and said they confronted Sims holding a .25-caliber handgun. Police said Sims reluctantly surrendered after he initially refused several orders to drop the gun. It will be tested to determine if it is the murder weapon.

Sims was not assigned an attorney yesterday and it could not be determined if he had relatives in the area. Several nearby residents said they had never met him. His front window was covered with a tarpaulin surrounded by Christmas lights.

A small sign in the window says, "Notice, unauthorized persons keep out." Next to that is a small statue of Jesus and a National Rifle Association sticker. Police said they seized a shotgun, two rifles and two .25-caliber handguns from the house.

Jermaine grew up in East Baltimore and attended Dr. Bernard Harris Sr. Elementary School, where a school clerk said yesterday that he had a good record. Two years ago, when he was 13, his father, Darian Jordan, enrolled him at Spencer High School, a military-oriented school at Fort Benning near Columbus, Ga.

Jordan, a staff sergeant at the base, drove his son to Baltimore on Friday. Jermaine went to his grandmother's home on East Oliver Street, one block from the shooting.

A family holiday weekend

On Saturday, he joined relatives for a cookout at Williams' home in Northeast Baltimore, where he played with his aunt's dog, Sasha, and grilled hot dogs and hamburgers.

On Sunday, he joined three unidentified friends and rode mountain bikes up and down mostly deserted Llewelyn Avenue, using discarded boards to practice makeshift jumps.

Detective Donald Gordon of the homicide unit said that shortly after 6 p.m., one of the youths threw a brick at Sims' Cadillac. Police said they do not believe Jermaine threw the brick, but said they haven't pinpointed a culprit and are questioning his companions.

Police said Sims walked out of his house holding a gun. The frightened youths ran inside an open door of a vacant rowhouse across the narrow street. Police said Sims fired two shots, and one bullet went through the doorway and hit Jermaine in the back.

He collapsed in an alley in back of the house and was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Williams said her nephew was a polite child who enjoyed basketball, bicycle riding and dogs, "but he usually kept to himself," she said.

Summer job

Jermaine would have spent his two-week break sweeping the floor and cleaning parts at Roger Taylor's auto repair shop on Belair Road. Taylor met the teen-ager, who was his wife's nephew, at the Saturday picnic, and was impressed enough to offer him a job that might have paid him $5 an hour.

"He seemed outgoing, and he wanted to work," Taylor said. "This would have been his first day. What happened is real dirty, real bad."

While in Baltimore, Jermaine was staying with his grandmother, Annie Morton, 66, in the 1600 block of E. Oliver St. His mother, Monica Morton, 32, visited yesterday. He has two sisters, Jamilla Williams, 16, Jasmine Williams, 10; and a brother, Joshua Williams, 6, all of Baltimore. Funeral plans were incomplete yesterday.

Neighborhood reaction

The shooting left neighborhood residents with conflicting opinions.

Lola Banks, 47, whose back yard faces Sims' house, said children are a constant nuisance. She called them "hoodlums. But I don't think gunfire is the answer. I guess the man just had enough. Cars cost a lot of money."

A woman who lives a block from Sims, but who refused to give her name, said she wants to see a newspaper article on her crumbling neighborhood.

"What makes this kid's death any different from all the others?" she said as she unloaded grocery bags from her car. "Children are always sweet when they are dead. They are never sweet when they are harassing senior citizens."

The Rev. Melvin Tuggle, president of Clergy United for Renewal in East Baltimore, said the Hurt case sent a frightening and incorrect message that "it's OK to take the law into your own hands, and seniors were listening.

"As the summer gets hotter, I'm afraid you may see more of this," he added. "We talk about young people going crazy, but now some of the seniors are going crazy too. And seniors should be seasoned enough to know better."

Earlier tragic shootings

Emotions expressed yesterday are similar to when Hurt stood on a second-floor fire escape and shot Vernon, 13, on the street below. Hurt claimed he felt threatened by a group of children who were throwing rocks at his car.

Three other youths have been killed in the past two decades by Baltimore homeowners who said they were frightened by young vandals. In 1979, Roman Welzant, 68, was charged with killing a young man who pelted his Dundalk home with snowballs. He was later acquitted on all charges.

In 1991, a 49-year-old man fatally shot a 13-year-old boy after the youth and others repeatedly rang the man's father's doorbell in West Baltimore.

And in 1994, a 29-year-old man allegedly pointed a rifle out of his city house and fatally shot a 17-year-old in the back after the youth bumped into his truck and set off the theft alarm.

Jermaine was the 159th homicide victim in Baltimore this year.

Nathaniel Hurt comments

In Hurt's case, neighbors rallied and collected money for his bail. Now free since January, Hurt sat in his kitchen yesterday with the kind of empathy for Albert Sims that a man can offer only if he's been through the same thing.

"I just feel sorry for the old man," the 64-year-old retired steelworker said. "I hope they put his case on the inactive docket That old man should've been left in peace -- a 77-year-old man can't handle no jail.

"We've got chaos around here every night, but I leave it alone now," said Hurt, who has been ordered to sell his home and move out of the neighborhood. "I don't care if they're out there getting shot or run over, I'm through trying to correct these children."

But the aunt of the youth Hurt killed, Agnes Holmes, said Sunday's shooting proves that lessons haven't been learned from a tragedy four years ago.

"Shooting someone over a car or some other merchandise is disgraceful," she said. "You cannot replace a child's life."

Pub Date: 7/07/98