Arson investigated at East Baltimore biker hangout probed in connection to Sunday mass shooting
Baltimore Police detectives were investigating potential arson Thursday at the scene of Sunday’s mass shooting in Oliver after a biker hangout there caught fire the night before.
The building at 1301 N. Spring St., which regularly hosted motorcycle club gatherings including a Sunday evening vigil that preceded the violence, caught fire around 10 p.m. Wednesday night, Baltimore Fire Department spokesperson Khalilah Yancey said. Smoke was visible from the garage unit when fire crews arrived and gained access to extinguish the flames.
The blaze came as Baltimore Police continue to probe whether a biker group was involved in Sunday’s shooting, which killed one person and left seven others injured.
Neighbors, some of whom declined to be identified for fear of retaliation, said the gunshots rang out during a confrontation between two groups — the bikers and people playing basketball at Calvin B. Scruggs Sr. Park.
Both the motorcyclists and the basketball players were a common presence in the area behind Dr. Bernard Harris, Sr., Elementary School, residents noted, adding that some activities around the park’s basketball courts, held by both bikers and other groups, would get rowdy.
On Thursday, a door to the garage that caught fire was tagged with the words “PRIVATE MEMBER’S [sic] ONLY” in stenciled letters and bore a “1%” sticker used by some motorcycle clubs. Other bikers have said that 1% is a reference to a comment attributed to the American Motorcycle Association in the 1950s that 99% of motorcyclists were law-abiding citizens, meaning the remaining 1% gave the rest a bad reputation.
In the same property, a space next door to the garage hosts a nonprofit that offers educational and professional development programs to youth in the community. Markia Beckwith, the CEO of Natural Born Champions, said her group’s space was only damaged by smoke — though she would have to close down until that could be repaired.
Though her nonprofit’s summer camp has wound down, she said the organization stays “busy with young people year round.” Beckwith said that it was especially unfortunate the center would have to close temporarily because it’s one of the few remaining spaces for the neighborhood’s youth, after the Oliver Multi-purpose Center closed last year.
Baltimore housing officials issued a citation to the Spring Street property’s owner in May, alleging that a motorcycle transport company was operating in the garage without a permit. The landlord, the transport company and two other people affiliated with the biker group did not return multiple requests for comment.
The owner of the transport company also was listed as the owner of a now-forfeited business, TG Aberdeen Motorcycle Club Inc., which state business records said was based at the garage on Spring Street. A sign affixed to a streetlight pole outside the building was marked with the logo of the Thunderguards Motorcycle Club.
Leaders of the People’s Association of Oliver Community Inc. said Oliver residents raised concerns earlier this year about bikers using the park and nearby spaces. Residents, who meet monthly, were concerned about parking, the condition of the park and loud noise, sometimes late into the evening.
City 911 call data shows that police had responded this year to eight noise complaints, disorderly conduct reports and other disturbances in the block, which bikers affiliated with the Thunderguards referred to on social media as “The Alley,” before Sunday. A database of 311 customer service requests shows several complaints since the start of the year tied to the block for concerns like poor sanitation, illegal dumping and parking issues.
The community association met with the motorcycle group in February to relay those concerns, urging them to “be respectful” of the community, said Diane Williams, president of the People’s Association of Oliver Community.
“They seemed to agree,” Williams said, and for a time, the issues died down.
She and Audrey Carter, also with the community association, heard within the past two weeks that the motorcycle group had returned. Williams noted, though, that they would not have anticipated any violence, based on the past conflict.
“I wouldn’t have taken these guys, the motorcycle group, to be the most aggressive ones,” Williams said. “Unless somebody was just angry that day. Somebody had to be angry that day for that to take place.”
Baltimore Oliver Community Association President Kim Moore said she had a productive conversation with the biker group’s leadership about a year ago as well, and raucous activity coming from the clubhouse seemed to die down after that.
She said that the neighborhood overall has become more peaceful over the past four years, since the coronavirus pandemic, making Sunday’s shooting an outlier.
“There’s never been anything at this scale,” she said.
She said she wouldn’t cast blame on the biker group, which sometimes held charitable events for the community, unless police specifically pointed to the motorcycle club being involved in Sunday’s shooting.
Police haven’t provided much detail on what transpired Sunday night, though they noted earlier this week they were probing the involvement of a biker group. Officers found multiple guns at the scene, and believe multiple people fired, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said Sunday night.
Flyers that circulated on social media showed that bikers were there Sunday for a vigil honoring a fellow motorcyclist, Kelroy “Nephew” Bourne, who died Aug. 10 after police say he crashed into a parked vehicle in Southwest Baltimore. Some of the people injured by gunfire that night — including Anthony Martin, the 36-year-old who died — were there to play basketball, according to people who knew them. Martin’s father, of the same name, declined to comment Wednesday, citing his grief.
The basketball game was a weekly occurrence held between friends, said Tim Cooley, whose friend’s daughter — part of that group — was injured by Sunday’s gunfire.
The city’s 911 data shows two noise complaints and a disorderly conduct report came through roughly an hour before the first reports of a shooting. A police spokesperson said that an officer responded, but was unable to locate the source of the noise.
Carter stopped by the park Sunday and saw “quite a number” of people. She estimated the motorcycle group numbered around 40, and there were about 20 or 30 other people gathered on the basketball courts.
From afar, Carter said, it may have appeared as one large group, but closer, the groups were distinguishable. The motorcycle group wore jackets, for example, she said.
Williams said the neighborhood now is “in an uproar” and wants to see the motorcycle group removed from the area. The community association planned to hold an emergency meeting Thursday evening about the shooting. But she and Carter noted that removing the group could take some legal action or other steps, adding that “if that’s the case that they’ve been an issue over the years, then we’re looking for the city to help us go through the legal process of doing it.”
Carter and Williams called this an “isolated incident” for Oliver, which residents described as a mostly peaceful neighborhood. When issues have flared up at the park in the past, there are often young people who step in to de-escalate conflict, Williams said.
It had been several years since there were any shootings near the park, according to Williams.
“This is not what Oliver’s known for,” Carter said. “We are relational. We are supportive. And we care about one another.”