An Annapolis man was arrested and charged with attempted manslaughter Thursday after a fight outside a Glen Burnie bar resulted in one person being shot, court records show.
JaRee Maurice Scott, 26, is being held without bail in the Jennifer Road Detention Center on 10 additional charges, including first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and several firearm violations. Anne Arundel Police said Scott was on probation for a 2022 handgun violation at the time of the shooting.
According to charging documents, county officers responded to Frank’s Den on Crain Highway after a report of a crowd fight in the street outside the business.
When they arrived, police said they found a 45-year-old man suffering from “non-life-threatening” gunshot wounds to the arm and thigh. He was taken to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore for treatment, police said.
Detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the bar, which showed a man police identified as Scott “assaulting an unknown male … on the ground.” After Scott was pulled off the man, police said he raised his arm and pointed a gun in the direction of the crowd. Three muzzle flashes could be seen, police said, and people in the group could be seen “ducking and dispersing.”
According to charging documents, another angle of the incident showed the gunshot victim fall at the time of the muzzle flashes, shortly before the shooter walks to a dark-colored vehicle and leaves the area.
A detective wrote that police were familiar with “some of the regular clientele” at Frank’s Den that come from Annapolis. The investigation quickly led authorities to Scott, a former student at Annapolis High School, according to charging documents.
Using an address found in school records, police reviewed surveillance footage near his home on the night of the shooting. According to charging documents, Scott was dropped off near the house by a dark-colored vehicle almost 20 minutes after the suspected gunman left Frank’s Den.
It was not immediately clear why Scott was charged with attempted manslaughter and not attempted murder.
Common law differentiates murder from manslaughter based on the presence of “deliberation, premeditation and malice” aforethought.
Manslaughter does not involve any of those factors and while considered an intentional killing, it is accompanied by additional circumstances, including a “hot-blooded” response to “legally adequate provocation,” said defense attorney Peter O’Neill. One such case, he said, could be a fight that started without deadly force.
O’Neill is not representing Scott, according to court records. As of Tuesday, no attorney has been assigned to his case.
In addition to Scott, Ricardo Fox, a 45-year-old man from Millersville, was charged with reckless endangerment in connection to the shooting. According to charging documents, Fox fired a handgun into the air several times “immediately” before the gunfire attributed to Scott.
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