Baltimore police pursue rental car to make arrest after fatal shooting

Baltimore Police detectives have arrested a man on murder charges in connection with a drive-by shooting over Memorial Day weekend that left one teenager dead and another injured.

On May 25, at about 3:50 p.m., a white Nissan Rogue SUV turned east onto Prospect Street in the Mosher neighborhood of West Baltimore, court records show. The SUV was traveling down the narrow one-way street when a person wearing a white T-shirt in the passenger side back seat leaned out the window and began firing shots.

A 15-year-old and a 17-year-old were shot, and the 17-year-old, Denzel Johnson, died in hospital, police said. The shooting was captured on video, according to court documents.

Johnson was an 11th-grader at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts, a city schools spokesman said. He is at least the sixth person under the age of 18 killed in Baltimore this year, according to police records.

The SUV, a rental car with Pennsylvania plates, was spotted on CitiWatch cameras shortly afterward, according to court documents. The Nissan has a built-in navigation system serviced through AT&T, and investigators were able to track the SUV in near real time.

Around 10 p.m., investigators and other Baltimore Police officers pursued the SUV to the 3900 block of Stokes Drive, where they saw it drive off the road and into the woods, according to court documents. Two men got out of the Nissan, and investigators wrote in the indictment that they saw a “flicker of flame” and feared they were going to set the SUV on fire.

The two men, wearing white shirts, ran through the woods as officers attempted to arrest them. Eventually, police managed to arrest one of them, 22-year-old Korey Hopson. The other was able to escape.

According to court records, Hopson gave a brief statement to investigators before requesting an attorney. He is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault. Police took Hopson’s cellphone and wrote in court records that location data placed Hopson in the area of ​​the shooting. An address for Hopson indicates his residence is one block from the shooting scene.

No attorney for Hopson is listed in online court records.

Lee O. Sanderlin is an enterprise reporter for The Baltimore Banner. Before joining The Banner, he worked as a reporter at The Baltimore Sun, covering a wide range of topics, including stories about violent politicians, sexual abuse, gun violence and legislative issues.

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