A Northeast Baltimore man told his 3-year-old son and the boy’s mother to go to the basement of their home Saturday afternoon, then walked outside and opened fire on two women visiting from out of state, sitting on a porch four doors down, killing them both, according to court documents.
The man, Dandre Woods-Bethel, 24, then called 911 around 6:30 p.m. and “stated that he had just shot someone and wanted to surrender himself to police upon arrival,” according to a police report of the incident. The document said Woods-Bethel confessed, but the report did not provide any possible motive.
When officers arrived at the 2800 block, they found Julie Rice and Michelle Green shot on the front porch of a home near the end of Clifton Park Terrace, investigators wrote in charging documents. The women later died at a local hospital.
Police wrote that Woods-Bethel faces two counts of first-degree murder.
While court documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun reveal more of the details behind Saturday’s double homicide, they also still leave questions unanswered why the 24-year-old apparently decided to open fire on the two women.
Michelle Green, 23, was in Baltimore with her mother, Lakia Jackson, and Rice, who was Jackson’s fiance. Jackson said the three came to Baltimore often and that she was on the porch during the shooting, but did not discuss it further.
Michelle Green’s father, Michael, said Friday the news has left him heartbroken. Five days earlier, he had called her just to tell her how much he loved her. He did not know that would be the last time he would be able to tell her that.
Originally from New Jersey, Michelle Green had studied to be a dental assistant at the Harris School of Business in Vorhees, New Jersey, had just recently moved into a new apartment and gotten her driver’s license, her father told The Baltimore Sun.
Michelle Green graduated from Lindenwold High School in 2014, her family said, and she would have turned 24 on Sept. 27, in just a little over a week.
“I never would have thought that I would be saying goodbye forever,” Michael Green said on Friday. Right now, it is a pain in my chest that you would never be able to get around.”
Jackson said she is trying to cope with the devastation of losing both her daughter and her fiance, Rice, who was 46.
She said Rice, “meant everything to me, I can’t imagine what I am going to do without her and my daughter; I spoke to them every day. They were my world.”
Woods-Bethel lived four houses from where the two women were found, along with his toddler son and the boy’s mother.
A witness told police that, before the 24-year-old shot the two women, he told his son and the child’s mother to go into the basement. Charging documents state a witness heard five to six shots and saw Woods-Bethel carrying “an AR 15 rifle.”
“Preliminary investigation reveals that both victims … were standing on the front porch of 2822 Clifton Park Terr. when the suspect Dandre Woods-Bethel exited his residence and stood on his covered front porch turned westbound and fired several times in the direction [of] the victims striking them both in the torso area,” charging documents state.
Police wrote that after Woods-Bethel surrendered, and while waiting to be interviewed, he made “incriminating statements.” The documents do not detail what those statements were.
Charging documents state that police searched Woods-Bethel’s home and found three firearms: a “Ruger 556 Rifle,” a “Highpoint 995 (9MM Rifle),” and a “Ruger LC9 9MM Pistol” as well as spent 9 mm shell casings and magazines of live .223 rifle ammo. Police wrote that the Ruger rifle and pistol each had live ammunition in the chamber.
While court records give a sense of what happened on Saturday evening in the secluded neighborhood near the Clifton Park Golf Course, they do not say whether Woods-Bethel told investigators why he shot the two women.
The 24-year-old has been accused of domestic violence in recent years and also received a probation-before-judgement sentence with one year of unsupervised probation after pleading guilty to violating a protective order in February. However, there’s nothing to indicate that the incidents are related.
The Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Woods-Bethel, declined to comment on his behalf, citing the ongoing nature of the case.
A spokeswoman for the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office did not return requests for comment on the case.
