Annapolis remembers fathers killed one year after shooting

Butterflies rose and fell in the breeze at the foot of the Annapolis City Dock on Tuesday night, capping a downtown memorial service a year after three men were killed on the bloodiest day in Maryland’s capital in nearly half a decade. They fluttered together along the shore and were released by their loved ones in the hope that they might take some of their grief with them.

On June 11, 2023, Mario Mireles, 27, his father Nicholas Mireles, 55, and Christian Segovia, 25, were shot and killed between two front yards in southeast Annapolis. They were part of a group of family and friends celebrating a birthday when a dispute over parking turned the 1000 block of Paddington Place into a sprawling crime scene. Three others were also shot but survived.

In the days following the shooting, government and local investigators cordoned off large parts of the community. Since then, the Mireles family has been memorialized with a new sign on Edgewood Road. When the crime scene tape was removed and the block became accessible again, the sides of cars and houses were riddled with bullet holes. A flower bed was covered with window glass from which one of the guns had been fired. Trails of orange spray paint were visible on the sidewalks and street.

The shooter, Charles Robert Smith, 44, lived with his mother, Shirley, on Paddington Place, three houses down from Mario Mireles. According to court documents, the families had disagreements over the years, culminating last June when Shirley Smith complained about a luxury car blocking her driveway. When Mario confronted her, the argument escalated, turned physical and turned deadly when her son intervened.

The bumper of a white Infiniti, the car Shirley Smith complained about, extended 17 inches beyond the Smiths’ driveway.

Smith was arrested the night of the shooting and charged a month later with hate crimes and first-degree murder – allegations that Anne Arundel County District Attorney Anne Colt Leitess and District Attorney Jason Steinhardt are working to prove. A district court hearing is scheduled for late July, with the two-week trial set to begin on February 7.

On Tuesday, family, friends and mourners marched from the Maryland State House to the Annapolis City Dock to pay their respects to their loved ones. Together, on a makeshift stage made of tents, they expressed their grief and could hardly believe that a year had passed since their lives were changed forever.

If there had been no postponements, Smith would have been in the middle of his trial on Tuesday.

“It’s exhausting,” Judi Abundez, Mario Mireles’ widow, told The Capital. “We want justice.”

The shooting came as a shock to the people of Annapolis, who at the time had not experienced mass violence in nearly five years, when a gunman attacked the Capital Gazette newsroom and killed five journalists.

A week after the deaths of the three men, hundreds of people marched the same route as Tuesday on Father’s Day – a particularly bitter memorial march since both Mario Mireles and Segovia were expecting children at the time of their deaths.

Memorial march on the first anniversary of the mass shooting | PHOTOS

A year later, the impact of the loss of the three men on their families was still the focus of Tuesday’s ceremony.

Eric Velasquez Perez, Nicholas Mireles’ son, said he hopes to be the strong father figure to his eight siblings that Nicholas was to him. With a microphone in hand, he was comforted by one of his sisters as the first emotions overcame him. He hugged her and put his arm around her head.

“I try to be strong for my siblings because sometimes it hurts,” Velasquez said. “Seeing them … not knowing their father isn’t there really hurts.”

Mario Mireles and Christian Segovia were the first two people Smith shot. Nicholas Mireles was shot in the head as he tried to run to his son.

“He wanted to be a great father, but then his life was taken,” Velasquez said. “He just wanted to help his dying son. Why? Why is he killed when he saved his son? Tell me that.”

A large crowd of friends, community members and leaders offered their support to the Mireles and Segovia families on Tuesday.

Bryan Martinez met Mario Mireles in 2010, shortly after moving to Annapolis from Georgia. They became fast friends at Annapolis High School, and one day Mario and Segovia met at his house while Segovia was working on Martinez’s car.

As Martinez walked down Main Street on Tuesday, pushing his baby in a stroller, he remembered his friends who, until their deaths, were at roughly the same place in life as he was: growing up together and raising their children together.

“They are all great people,” Martinez said.

Those who spoke on Tuesday remembered the three men with passion and affection. But when they talked about local leaders, officials they met in droves last June, they spoke with frustration and disappointment.

Christian Segovia Sr. recalled meeting with Governor Wes Moore shortly after his son’s death. He told the governor not to shake his hand if he didn’t do anything to help the grieving families and their children. But Moore took Segovia’s hand that day, making a promise that the father says he hasn’t fulfilled to this day.

“That’s a shame,” said Segovia. “But he can still make it up to him.”

Carter Elliott, the governor’s spokesman, said in a statement later Tuesday night that the Moore-Miller administration had worked with the families to help them heal from “this terrible tragedy.”

“The Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy is in regular contact with affected families to assist them in applying for assistance and funds. The office also has several staff members who are fluent in Spanish and can assist with any necessary translations,” Elliott said.

The spokesman said that the State would ultimately continue to be responsible for many of these costs and that victims had frequently expressed considerable frustration with the timeliness and scope of the victims’ compensation system’s benefits.

He said tragedies like last June’s shooting helped pass two bills the governor introduced and signed this year: the Victim Compensation Reform Act, which would modernize Maryland’s victim compensation program, and the creation of the Center for Firearm Violence Prevention and Intervention, the state’s first gun violence prevention agency.

“The Moore-Miller government will continue to work with the families affected to ensure they receive the appropriate support they deserve. And the government will continue to advocate for changes to a system that has left so many victims of these tragedies frustrated in the past,” Elliott said.

Segovia said he has been able to count on the community’s support since the shooting last year. Although he lives in Severn, he was contacted the night of the attack by Susy Cruz of St. Mary’s Church in Annapolis. She just wanted to know how the church could help, Segovia said. Since then, St. Mary’s has regularly offered the family financial support, Segovia said.

Cruz did not immediately return a call after the event on Tuesday.

Segovia said Tuesday he doesn’t know how many friends he has and that every friend of his son is also his friend.

While members of both families called for more action from public authorities, several of them attended Tuesday’s ceremony, including Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley and Maryland State Delegate Shaneka Henson.

Buckley said the shooting last June showed that Annapolis is not simply “a place where everyone belongs to a yacht club” but a “real city … a real urban area” with a diverse population and a complex set of social problems. He said his administration is committed to fighting hate, but more needs to be done.

“If this city were a more inclusive place, what happened a year ago would never have happened,” Buckley said.

Julian Segovia, Christian Segovia’s brother, disagreed with the mayor’s comments, saying that “performative actions” such as displaying Pride and Juneteenth flags “do not lead to significant change.”

However, looking at the people in the crowd on Tuesday, Julian Segovia said they had shown the necessary hope and need for help.

“This is what community looks like,” said Julian Segovia. “This is the important part of Annapolis. This is the important part of the state of Maryland.”