For the third time in a month, 18-year-old Curtis Deal had been arrested on gun or drug charges. Judge Nicole Taylor wanted to be sure the young man understood what was expected if she released him to wait for trial.
"You’re not going out at night, you’re not going to get food, you’re not going to meet your girlfriend. You’re in your house," Taylor told him, raising her voice.
"I’m giving you an opportunity to go to school and not be in jail pending this trial. The curfew is 1 p.m., 7 days a week."
Deal said he understood. Taylor wished him luck.
The next day about 3 p.m., Deal was fatally shot by a Baltimore police officer after allegedly jumping out of a vehicle being tailed by officers and fleeing through the same neighborhood where he’d been arrested the week before. Police said an officer chasing Deal shot him after he saw Deal had a gun and feared for his own life. The officer’s body camera captured the shooting, police said.
Curtis Deal
Curtis Deal
An aunt said Thursday the family was not prepared to make a statement. Deal’s attorney also declined to comment Thursday.
Almost immediately after the shooting, the circumstances of Deal’s release became a flashpoint in the growing debate in Baltimore around perceived leniency for repeat gun offenders in the court system.
"That’s really despicable, because it’s putting our officers and our citizens in harm’s way seeing these people continuously possess these firearms and walk these streets and want to inflict harm on people," said T.J. Smith, a police spokesman.
"It shows dysfunction, I believe, in our criminal justice system," said Mayor Catherine Pugh. "People who have those many gun charges probably should not be on our streets."
Baltimore Police on Thursday identified the 18-year-old man who was fatally shot by a detective during a foot pursuit Tuesday as Curtis Jamal Deal, of Pigtown.
They also released footage from the detective’s body camera that showed Deal raising a handgun in the direction of the officer prior to…
Baltimore Police on Thursday identified the 18-year-old man who was fatally shot by a detective during a foot pursuit Tuesday as Curtis Jamal Deal, of Pigtown.
They also released footage from the detective’s body camera that showed Deal raising a handgun in the direction of the officer prior to…
Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said authorities need to "make sure people carrying guns in the community are held accountable." He said Deal’s death was "tragic," but that the officer was "put in a situation maybe he shouldn’t have been in."
Smith, Pugh and Rosenstein all emphasized the context for their comments: a city reeling from gun violence, with more than a killing a day so far in 2017. But none of them spoke to the specific nature of Deal’s arrests, the evidence against him, or the conditions of his release.
The recording of Deal’s 20-minute bail review hearing from the day before his death as well as court records from his two prior arrests provide a better understanding of those circumstances.
Deal, who turned 18 in November, was first arrested as an adult in the city just a month ago. On Jan. 4, he was charged with four handgun counts. According to court records, plainclothes officers were in an unmarked vehicle in the 1100 block of S. Carey Street that day when they observed Deal, whom they recognized, standing on a corner. Upon seeing the officers, Deal looked startled, "put his hands up in the air and shouted ‘I’m leaving,’" police wrote.
As he did, an officer saw a bulge in his waistline, which the officer believed to be a gun, the records say. One of the officers exited the vehicle and Deal ran, thus beginning an extended foot chase.
Eventually Deal was caught. The officer chasing him said he’d heard Deal throw the gun in an alley and it was recovered, the records say. At the time, Deal was already prohibited from possessing a firearm after a previous juvenile arrest, the records say.
Deal was transported to the hospital because "he was complaining that he couldn’t breathe," and later was charged. He posted $100,000 bail the next day and was released.
On Jan. 30, Deal was arrested a second time — again by plainclothes officers, again after an extended pursuit. According to court records, he’d been spotted approaching a vehicle, seeing officers, then taking off with a clenched fist, court records say.
Deal allegedly tossed a bag of suspected heroin under a car before he was caught, court records say. He was released on his own recognizance the next day.
At Deal’s bail review hearing Monday, Taylor began considering his third arrest, from last week, in which he was charged with nine new gun and drug counts.
Police alleged that Deal had been involved in a large-scale drug operation in several vacant homes in the 1900 block of Frederick Avenue, according to court records. Raiding the homes, officers netted a gun, ammunition, hundreds of gel caps of suspected heroin, and thousands of dollars in cash, records show. Deal had run from the location with a co-defendant in the case and both had been arrested, police said. Officers had pinned the entire haul on the pair.
In court, Taylor pressed prosecutors about the charges against Deal. She acknowledged drug transactions were occurring at the home, and that Deal and his co-defendant were in the area and had wanted to escape when police rushed in. But she noted a difference between Deal and the co-defendant.
"They want to get out of that yard, and in the yard there’s a lot of money, and on his co-defendant there’s a lot of money and there’s lots of gel caps. But on Mr. Deal there’s no money, no drugs, no gun…?" Taylor asked.
"He’s an active participant in a large-scale sale of drugs," said Assistant State’s Attorney David Chiu, arguing for the state. "This isn’t someone who just happened to be there. This was a lengthy period of observation with multiple sales. Flight obviously is evidence of guilty knowledge."
Chiu pointed out that Deal was already out on $100,000 bail from his previous gun case at the time of this arrest.
"Given the connection of violence and drugs and guns and the enormous amount of drugs that were being sold here, while he’s out on bail for guns, the state thinks he poses a continuing and extreme risk to public safety," Chiu said.
Taylor asked Deal’s defense attorney, Jerome Bivens, what he thought.
"Judge, this was a lot of confusion, a whole lot of people, and this is the standard scenario: We see two black guys running, we’re going to lock them up," Bivens said.
Bivens said Deal was in his last year at Digital Harbor High School. His family attended church, he played basketball. "He tells me that his intention is to go into the Army and to study engineering," Bivens said.
Taylor said she understood all the facts in the case weren’t clear, but noted Deal’s pending gun and drug charges.
"And now here he is running allegedly from an area where there’s lots of guns and drugs," Taylor said.
Bivens declined to comment Thursday. A court spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment from Taylor.
Deal — who listed himself as jobless and indigent in court records — had been released on a $250,000 unsecured bond, meaning he wouldn’t have to put any money down but would theoretically have to pay the full amount if he didn’t show up for court.
In addition to that and the curfew, Deal would have to check in with the court three times a week, and bring proof that he was attending classes, Taylor said.
The next day, hours after his 1 p.m. curfew, Deal was back in the same block of Frederick Avenue where the drug bust had happened the week before, this time bleeding on the ground.
Col. Stanley Brandford, the Baltimore Police Department’s chief of detectives, said the agency planned to release body camera footage to the public.
Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton contributed to this article.
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