Man faces murder charge in ex-girlfriend's shooting

The Baltimore Sun

Baltimore County police went to the house and found a woman shot dead, and her 3-year-old son was gone. It wasn't the first time officers had been there, and they broadcast an alert for a silver Toyota.

Within minutes, the driver - the woman's ex-boyfriend - was under arrest, and their young son was in safe hands.

Killed was Anna Marie Bergman, 20, a dental assistant who died in the house she had recently bought in a neighborhood just west of the Baltimore City line.

Ryan Joseph Butler, a 22-year- old warehouse worker and a doorman at a downtown Baltimore nightclub, was charged last night with first-degree murder. He was escorted out of a District Court commissioner's office wearing handcuffs, a blue jumpsuit and a blank expression on his unshaven face.

Friends and relatives of Bergman said the couple had been fighting for weeks, and that Butler had become angry at Bergman's refusal to resume their relationship.

Officers showed up at her home on Westshire Road on Friday night after Bergman called police saying Butler would not leave, authorities said. Later that night, she saw a court commissioner about obtaining a restraining order against Butler but was told she did not qualify for one, friends and relatives said.

"She was crying at the courthouse because they wouldn't give it to her," said Kellie Boyle, a childhood friend of Bergman's who said she saw Bergman at the courthouse.

Court commissioners in Catonsville and Towson declined to comment, referring questions to state court officials, who could not be reached.

Family members described Bergman as a hard-working woman who had overcome a rough upbringing largely without her parents. She quit smoking the day she learned she was pregnant, went on to earn a General Educational Development diploma, received training as a medical assistant and got a job as a dental assistant, Boyle said.

"Everything revolved around her son," Boyle said.

Boyle said she was with Bergman at Marley Station mall in Anne Arundel County about six years ago when Butler caught Bergman's eye.

Bergman said he was cute and introduced herself to him, Boyle said. Three years ago they had a son, who was named after Butler.

Bergman and her son had been living with Butler in an apartment on Benzinger Road just inside the city line in Southwest Baltimore. But she wanted to get away from Butler and bought her house two months ago, Boyle said.

Butler works for Morris Tile in Halethorpe, overseeing warehouse shipments and deliveries, said Ray Green, a company supervisor. He also works several nights a week at a nightclub in downtown Baltimore, mows lawns and helps out at his aunt's auto body shop, Green said.

"All the boy does is go to the gym and work, work, work," Green said.

He said he has never heard Butler talk about violence. "Every customer that's come in here today is totally shocked," Green said. "He didn't talk about beating people up. Really, he's not that type of person."

But he said that Bergman and Butler had been "on and off" in recent weeks and that Butler seemed to be in a kind of "daze."

Green said Butler told him Friday that he was going to join the Army "because he had to get away." When Butler showed up to work yesterday morning, he told a co-worker that he needed to see his son and would be gone for a half-hour, Green said.

He left work about 7:30 a.m., Green said.

Fifteen minutes later, Jerome Barnes was in his truck outside his home on Westshire Road when, he said, he saw a silver Toyota Corolla zip around the corner and stop in front of Bergman's house. Barnes said he was about to drive to the store to get medicine for his daughter when he saw a man jump out of the car and rush into the house.

"The next thing you know, he came out of the house no more than three minutes later with a baby in his hand, got into his car and drove away real fast," Barnes said.

Officers answering to a report of gunfire found Bergman dead of several gunshot wounds, the charging documents state. One of the officers was familiar with Butler and Bergman because of previous calls to the house, and he put out an alert over the radio for a Toyota, giving a tag number, according to the charging documents.

Moments later, the car was located. Officers briefly chased the vehicle until it stopped in the 2900 block of Ohio Ave. in Baltimore. Butler was the driver, and he surrendered to police, who found a revolver on the front passenger seat and the 3-year-old boy in the car, according to charging documents.

Butler is not registered to own a gun in Maryland, a state police spokesman said.

When questioned by investigators, Butler "admitted responsibility for the murder," charging documents state.

The boy was placed in the custody of Butler's parents, said Bergman's brother, Jay Bergman.

josh.mitchell@baltsun.com

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