The morning after 12-year-old Breaunna Cormley was shot and killed in the McElderry Park neighborhood of East Baltimore, the block was completely empty until Terry McDonald walked outside around 9:30 a.m., sat on his front porch and lit a cigarette. Through his bifocals he gazed across the street at 509 Kenwood Ave., where he said the young girl lived. McDonald said Cormley was friends with his daughter and he used to fix her bike.

“She was quiet. She’d go to school. She’d come home. She wouldn’t come outside; she would always be in the house with her grandmother,” McDonald said about Cormley, whose social media account followed celebrities like Zendaya and Millie Bobby Brown, performers including Snoop Dogg and Bruno Mars and numerous dog accounts, including multiple featuring Golden Retrievers and pugs.

“She never really interacted with none of the other little kids out here.”

Baltimore City Police said they received a call around 8 p.m. Friday about a 12-year-old girl being shot in the 500 block of North Kenwood Avenue.

“Once our officers got here, they located a 12-year-old young lady inside the residence with a gunshot wound,” Police Commissioner Richard Worley said at a news conference late Friday alongside Mayor Brandon Scott.

Worley said CPR was performed, but despite their efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

“This young lady had a whole life ahead of her, but a coward took her life,” Scott said Friday night. “You’re talking about a 12-year-old girl. That’s all that matters. Nothing else matters.”

When asked if this was a targeted shooting, Worley responded: “I can tell you it wasn’t accidental; it was not accidental. It was done on purpose.”

Neighbors said Cormley had a few close friends on the block she typically stuck with. She had recently started attending National Academy Foundation, McDonald said. The school runs from grades 6 to 12.

When the shooting occurred Friday night, McDonald said he was at home.

“I was over here washing cars,” he said.

McDonald said a man, who he did not name but who he knew to be the on-again, off-again boyfriend of the child’s mother, went inside the house, then paced the block and came back a few more times. McDonald said he never heard a gunshot.

When the child’s grandmother came home, she soon ran outside, McDonald said, and asked if anyone had a phone. Hers was dead. McDonald said the child’s grandmother appeared panicked and confused asking, “Why did he do that to my baby?”

McDonald ran into his home and got his daughter, Tanisha Robinson, a nurse’s assistant, who he told to go across the street to help.

At around 7:50 p.m. Robinson ran to the girl’s house and saw Cormley lying on her back in a puddle of blood. She didn’t have a pulse, Robinson said.

“I go in the house, there’s blood everywhere,” Robinson said, adding that the girl was bleeding from her head.

Robinson started to perform CPR. She called the police and was put on hold twice, she said.

“I couldn’t breathe,” Robinson said. “I’m like, ‘Bro this is an emergency,’ like for real.”

Saturday afternoon, police identified the suspect in the shooting as 28-year-old Omar Passmore.

Maryland court records show two domestic violence cases were brought against Passmore in the last few years, one in 2021 that was closed and the other in 2023 that was settled. He was also listed as the defendant in a child custody case last month.

“I don’t understand. What would make you want to kill a child?” McDonald said. “Her life ain’t even begin, for real.”

As police knocked on doors and spoke to neighbors early Saturday, a toddler in a diaper waddled out onto the sidewalk while family members spoke with officers. Several neighbors peered out from windows and doors.

“It’s going to be quiet around here today,” said Jeff Spriggs, who lives on the next block.

Saturday afternoon police said Passmore was still on the loose, armed and dangerous.

Anyone with any information may contact detectives at 410-396-2100. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call the Metro Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-866-7LOCKUP or submit an anonymous text tip by visiting the MCS website.

Baltimore Sun editor Bill Wachsberger contributed to this article.