ELKTON — A 10-year-old boy suffered a bullet wound to his leg early Wednesday morning when someone indiscriminately fired multiple shots into an Elkton home – marking the second time in four years that child has been shot under similar circumstances.
Now, investigators are trying to identify the person or people responsible for this latest attack, according to police.
Elkton Police Department investigators reported that a gunman or gunmen walked up to the rear of a residence in the 200 block of West High Street at approximately 12:15 a.m. Wednesday and fired numerous shots at the house and then fled.
The targeted home also was occupied by the boy's 35-year-old mother and four other children – ages 2, 5, 9 and 13 – police said, adding that at least two older minors, approximately 17 years old, stay there, too. No one else was wounded.
"Some bullets got embedded in walls, some went through walls and windows. The bullet that hit the boy traveled through the first floor and struck him in the left leg while he was lying on the couch, sleeping. Unfortunately, it was the same kid who was wounded four years ago, and he was wounded in the same leg," outlined Det. Lt. Ronald Odom, who also serves as an EPD spokesman.
An ambulance crew rushed the boy to Nemours Children's Hospital in Wilmington, Del., where he underwent at least one surgery on his non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his left leg, according to Odom. Updated information on the boy's medical condition was unavailable as of Friday evening.
The same boy was shot in the left knee in a similar shooting attack in May 2020. After that incident, the boy – who was 6 at that time – underwent an emergency surgery and other procedures.
Odom emphasized that the indiscriminate shooting into the West High Street residence on Wednesday morning was not a random act and speculated that it was the intention of the shooter or shooters to harm an older person or older people inside that dwelling, not the boy.
Reviewing the history, Odom then stressed it also wasn't a random act when two men – who have since been convicted and sentenced – opened fire at about 3 p.m. on May 11, 2020, at a townhouse at 122 Huntsman Drive where, at that time, the boy was living with his family.
In addition to the boy, two other people inside that Huntsman Drive townhouse suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds in that attack four years ago - a 25-year-old man who was struck in the lower back and the boy's mother, then 31. A bullet grazed her foot.
On Friday, two days after the most recent shooting incident, Odom expressed shock that the boy was wounded for a second time in such fashion since May 2020. But Odom maintained that he wasn't even surprised that the West High Street residence was targeted by a gunman or gunmen.
"When you are involved in criminal activities and associate with people involved in criminal activities, there is a higher likelihood that something like this is going to happen. This boy is a victim – not once, but twice – by the poor decision making of other people in that household," Odom opined, before declining to elaborate because of the ongoing investigation.
Odom emphasized that EPD detectives and officers are immersed in an aggressive investigation to identify the person or people responsible for firing the gunshots into the West High Street dwelling and to arrest and charge that person or people.
"They created a dangerous situation. They were firing guns and there are nearby residences, houses on either side," Odom said.
"Right now, we don't have any suspects. We don't know if they fled on foot or if they ran to a vehicle that was parked down the street and drove away," Odom added.
To preserve the integrity of the investigation, Odom declined to release specific information regarding measures EPD detectives and officers are taking to identify the gunman or gunmen.
Anyone with information that might help in this investigation is asked to call the Elkton Police Department at 410-398-4200, ext. 5, or email the lead detective, Det. Modge, at 284@elktonpd.org.
As for the shooting incident at the Huntsman Drive residence in May 2020, Cecil County Circuit Court Judge William W. Davis Jr. imposed a 30-year prison term on one of the three co-defendants – Robert Eugene Hammond IV, then 25 – in February 2022 for his role in that incident, according to court records and Cecil Whig archives.
Davis did so after finding Hammond guilty of first-degree assault, use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or a crime of violence and eight other charges at the conclusion of a three-day-long bench trial in September 2021. Hammond opted not to testify in his own defense at trial.
Then in March 2023, some 13 months after sentencing Hammond, Davis imposed three sentences on the second co-defendant - Jason Tyler Holland, then 28, of North East - that translated to a six-year prison term, five of which are mandatory. Holland is Hammond's half-brother, according to court records and Cecil Whig archives.
Davis sentenced Holland after a jury found him guilty of lesser charges — possession of a firearm by convicted felon or a person with a disqualifying conviction, handgun on person and illegal possession of ammunition — at the conclusion of his trial in December 2022.
The jury concluded that Holland had acted in self-defense, as Holland had maintained on the witness stand. Holland contended that he acted in self-defense after a man inexplicably fired a long gun out the front door of that Huntsman Drive townhouse.
(Although the jury concluded that Holland had acted in self-defense when firing his gun, Holland’s criminal record prohibits him from possessing firearms and ammunition, which is why jurors convicted him of the lesser weapon charges.)
Those .22 caliber bullets that the man fired out the front door of that Huntsman Drive townhouse struck objects in that general area, including a house on nearby Pheasant Drive, based on the physical evidence collected by investigators. A security camera videotaped parts of the shooting incident.
As for the third co-defendant – Cody Allen Hammond, then 21, of Elkton – Cecil County Circuit Court Judge Brenda A. Sexton acquitted him of all charges at mid-trial in May 2023 in response to a defense motion made by Elkton-based lawyer C. Thomas Brown, according to Cecil Whig archives, which also indicate that Cody Hammond is Robert Hammond's brother.
During his mid-trial motion, Brown argued that the state had failed to meet its burden of proof to convict his client. Specifically, he maintained that his client is unarmed every time he appears on security-camera video of the incident, which prosecutors had presented as part of their case against him.
After reviewing that footage, Sexton agreed with Brown that the video in evidence never shows Cody Hammond in possession of a gun.
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