“As a mother of seven, I am utterly devastated and heartbroken,” Nikia Evans wrote in a letter to the school system. “This tragedy highlights a critical need for increased safety measures, improved communication and greater transparency.”

Her letter echoed the sentiments of many parents who posted on social media platforms asking for enhanced security measures and transparency since the Friday killing of 15-year-old Warren Grant.

“We must implement additional measures such as metal detectors, expanded school police forces and tighter security protocols,” Evans wrote. “I urge the school district to implement more stringent measures to prevent future acts of violence within our schools.”

Joppatowne High student Jaylen Rushawn Prince, 16, of Edgewood, was charged as an adult in the shooting death of Grant, a fellow student. According to police reports, Prince pulled out a handgun during a fight inside the school and shot Grant in the chest. Prince fled the school and was arrested after allegedly attempting to break into a home, police said.

County Councilmembers Aaron Penman and Dion Guthrie said the county needs to look into ways to improve security within schools.

“I think back to when my kids were at Joppatowne High School and it is sad,” said Guthrie, a Democrat representing District A. “School safety needs to be a priority, and I will be looking into what we can do as a council to protect our students.”

Penman, a Republican representing District B and a sergeant with the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, said he also wants to engage in conversations about safety in addition to discussing methods of intervention to prevent problems from spilling into the school building.

“This should have never happened in a school,” Penman said. “There is a good possibility this could have happened outside of the school and we need to diagnose that from a community level and maybe that spills over to school administrators and they need to have the conversation and allow law enforcement to take preventative measures.”

As for prevention inside the school, Penman explained the importance of school resource officers and the potential of metal detectors as being a solution.

Both Guthrie and Penman said implementing deterrents such as metal detectors would be a costly endeavor.

“We need to have these discussions and I look forward to examining all options at the county level and metal detectors at schools would be one,” Penman said. “That does come with a cost but the loss of a life is much more costly than any dollar cost.”

Conversations at the county level regarding school safety are still preliminary stages. As of Monday, county officials said they are working to understand what led to the shooting at Joppatowne High School and what solutions they can enact that further protect students.

Patty Morin is set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee   at a hearing titled: “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Victim Perspective,” her attorney, Randolph Rice, said in a news release. The hearing begins at 10 a.m.

The man suspected of killing Rachel Morin, Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 23, of El Salvador, was arrested in June. Prosecutors say he entered the U.S. illegally.

Martinez-Hernandez is charged with first- and second-degree murder; first- and second-degree rape; and third-degree sex offense and kidnapping in connection with Rachel Morin’s death. He is being held without bail in the Harford County Detention Center.

Patty Morin’s planned testimony is not the first time the Morin family has spoken publicly about illegal immigration following Morin’s death. In July, the family was invited to attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. During the convention, Michael Morin said his sister’s death happened because of broken immigration laws.

Rice’s news release stated that Patty Morin is expected to discuss how the suspect’s ability to enter the U.S. illegally created an “opportunity for the tragedy and how policies need to change to prevent other families from suffering a similar loss.”

“Patty’s courage in speaking out during such a difficult time is admirable,” Rice said in the news release. “This hearing provides a crucial platform to shed light on the consequences of our nation’s border policies, and we hope her voice helps create meaningful change.”

At least 100 people, most of them young, gathered Sunday evening in Edgewood to remember the 15-year-old, who was fatally shot Friday during a fight at Joppatowne High School.

Through tears, attendees released blue balloons for his favorite color. Some wore shirts that said, “Gone too soon,” as they embraced on the neighborhood basketball court where Grant spent many afternoons.

“He was chill and laid-back and he did not bother nobody,” classmate Natalia Hardy said after the vigil. “He loved basketball. I grew up with him.”

Several people spoke during the vigil and many were crying. Their sentiments were unified. A woman stepped forward and urged the gathered young people to go to school and be successful because that’s what Grant would have wanted everyone to do.

“He kept my son out of trouble. He loved my family, and we love him. We will never forget him. He’s the last person I would ever expect this to happen to,” Viateria Lyons said after the vigil, noting that her son and Grant were close friends.

Vigil for Joppatowne High School student | PHOTOS

The vigil came as Harford County Public Schools decided to close five of its schools for part of the week in response to the shooting and offer counseling services for students.

Joppatowne High will be closed Monday to Wednesday, with the school district saying: “It is our intention to have students return on Thursday.”

The nearby Magnolia Elementary, Magnolia Middle, Joppatowne Elementary and Riverside elementary schools will be closed Monday. Before- and after-school care and activities are canceled at each of the schools but will resume when students return, the system said.

Parents were informed of the closures Saturday evening with Harford County Public Schools writing that “the tragic events of Friday have taken an emotional toll on this community and there is a need for time and space to heal.”

On Sunday evening, HCPS said on its website that school counselors, school psychologists, social workers or other supporting central office staff would be available for students at three locations in Edgewood starting at 10 a.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until midafternoon: Windsor Valley Community Center, 570 Meadowood Drive; Edgewood Boys and Girls Club, 2002 Cedar Drive; and Edgewood EPI Center, 1918 Pulaski Highway.

The shooting occurred during a fight between two students in a first-floor bathroom at the high school. The 16-year-old suspect allegedly drew a handgun and shot Grant in the chest. Grant was airlifted to an area hospital, where he later died.

Police said the suspect fled school grounds but was later reported to the police for allegedly attempting to break into a house. Responding officers apprehended the suspect.

The suspect is being charged as an adult with murder, first- and second-degree assault, and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony/crime of violence. He is being held in the Harford County Detention Center, awaiting an initial appearance before a judicial officer.

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office said it believes the suspect and victim knew each other and that there isn’t an outstanding suspect or threat to the community.

Dion Guthrie, the councilman for District A, which includes the school, said he plans to evaluate options to improve school safety across the county, but aside from the potential cost of something like metal detectors, he said there are a lot of logistics involved as well.

“Say you put in metal detectors, you have numerous entrances at each school and over 50 schools in the county,” Guthrie said. “Figuring that out and how to pay for it is a lot, so I am looking into all the options we have available.”

Sitting at his home in Joppatowne, as the helicopter carrying Grant flew above the school Friday, Guthrie reflected to when his kids, now adults, were students at Joppatowne High, he said Sunday.

“I think back to when they were there, and sure, things could have happened, but it just seems these things have been happening more frequently across the country,” Guthrie said. “It is certainly a difficult time for everyone, and my thoughts are with the family, the school and the community.”

On Sunday morning, the high school campus was quiet, but a handful of visitors stopped by to pay respects. Some people have left flowers or other tributes. A police car was stationed at the school and moved to different locations around the area about every 20 minutes.

After the vigil, Lyons lamented a lack of spaces in Edgewood for teenagers.

“There is nothing in Edgewood for the kids. There is no programs. There is no nothing. What is there for them to do?” Lyons said. “All we have is empty buildings. What is there for the kids? Where is the boys and girls club out here? Go to Bel Air, go to Fallston go to Aberdeen, there are things for kids to do. Where can kids in Edgewood go and talk and hang out and get a positive message from somebody?

A Facebook post from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office announcing the arrest had drawn more than 530 comments as of Sunday afternoon, with many providing words of sympathy and concerns surrounding gun control and school safety.

“Two lives ended yesterday when they had just barely started. Violence is never the way,” one reads.

Many commenters said they feel the school system should install metal detectors, while others said the solution is responsible gun ownership.

Students from the high school as well as Magnolia, Joppatowne and Riverside elementary schools and Magnolia Middle can pick up bagged lunches at Magnolia Middle and Mariner Point Park, between noon and 1 p.m. Monday, the Harford County Public Schools said Sunday evening. On Tuesday, Joppatowne High students can pick up two-day meal kits at the high school and the Windsor Valley Community Center between noon and 1 p.m.

If a Joppatowne High student needs to collect personal belongings before returning to school Thursday, a school safety liaison will be available to escort them at noon Monday.

Baltimore Sun photographer Lloyd Fox contributed to this article. 

[Get the latest weathercast from FOX45 News]

Tuesday is expected to be sunny with a high around 83 before dropping into the upper 50s at night.

The Pride of Baltimore II in Havre de Grace | PHOTOS

Wednesday afternoon is predicted to be sunny with a high near 84. Wednesday night should be clear with a low in the upper 50s.

Thursday is expected to be sunny with a high around 82. Temperatures will drop into the 60s under cloudy skies at night.

Wine on the Water 2024 | PHOTOS

Friday, Saturday and Sunday are expected to be mostly sunny in the afternoon with temperatures in the 80s and cloudy at night with temperatures in the 60s.

Baltimore Police officers responded around 10:45 p.m. to the 1600 block of North Bentalou Street near Senator Troy Brailey Easterwood Park for a ShotSpotter alert — a network of sensors that alert police to potential gunshots.

Upon arrival, police located a male 17-year-old suffering from an apparent gunshot wound, according to police.

The victim was transported to an area hospital by medical personnel. His condition is non-life-threatening, police said Sunday.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact them at 410-396-2477 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7Lockup.

Applications for rezoning opened in early June and closed Aug. 2. The 66 applications received for the county’s comprehensive rezoning process cover 87 parcels across all districts.

The Department of Planning and Zoning is now assessing each request and will provide recommendations on each application to the Planning Advisory Board, composed of five residents appointed by the county executive who will also review and provide recommendations. The administration will then forward a comprehensive rezoning bill to the County Council, which is the only county entity with authority to rezone properties. The county executive and Department of Planning and Zoning can only make rezoning recommendations to the council.

County Executive Bob Cassilly said residents may be “justifiably concerned” about the potential for increased growth and traffic congestion that could result from zoning changes.

“Those concerns are important and merit full consideration in the comprehensive rezoning process,” Cassilly said. “Public comments are encouraged on each request and those comments will be carefully considered in the evaluation of the requests.”

District A — primarily covering Joppatowne and Edgewood — has the most rezoning requests. Most concern parcels zoned at the lowest density residential zoning, known as R1, and seek a change to the highest residential classification of R4 and greater.

District A Councilman Dion Guthrie said that though he is against rezoning R1 property to a higher density and up-zoning as a whole, he will visit each applicant property so he can better understand the requests.

“If someone can make the case to me, then it will be different, but as of now, I am not in favor of any R1 going to R4 or anything like that,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie, a Democrat, is concerned about overcrowding and is critical of large development projects in the county. He maintains that more development and more dense zoning result in overcrowding of schools, increased traffic congestion and an overall reduction in quality of life.

The 2025 Comprehensive Rezoning — required by county code to occur every eight years — was initiated by County Executive Bob Cassilly in February when he submitted legislation to the County Council. The purpose of comprehensive rezoning is to allow property owners the opportunity to adjust to land use changes and the needs of the community.

“Of the 66 requests that came through, I am sure that through recommendations from the county executive and planning and zoning, a lot of them are not going to be moved forward or recommended to the council,” said Council President Patrick Vincenti.

Vincenti cited his experience during comprehensive rezoning in 2016 when he was the council representative for District E. He said that more than 100 applications were submitted during that process and a lot were filtered out by the county executive and department officials.

The council will hold a public hearing and council representatives will vote on applications that are recommended to proceed.

Guthrie explained that he plans to look into rezoning the land known as Abingdon Woods — the proposed site of the controversial Abingdon Business Park, a project that has been abandoned; however, the property owner has not applied for rezoning.

According to the Department of Planning and Zoning’s website, the department can recommend changing the zoning of a property for which the owner has not requested a change. Director of Planning and Zoning Shane Grimm said these changes are typically only done to fix errors.

“For example, if a property is zoned say R1 but is surrounded by B3, we will attempt to contact the owner and ask if they have any objection to us recommending a rezoning,” Grimm said.

If this occurs, the department must give notice to the property owner and the owners of neighboring properties 30 days before the public hearing.

If council members wanted to rezone property not recommended by the Department of Planning and Zoning or sought by the property owner, they would need to propose an amendment to the rezoning bill that would need a majority vote by the council.

Guthrie said rezoning of Abingdon Woods would be a proactive measure to avoid another developer looking to build a large manufacturing facility on the site since it is currently zoned for commercial industrial use. Guthrie stated that he would aim to rezone the land to R1 which would allow for low-density single-family homes.

“Single-family homes would go more in tune with the community,” Guthrie said. “The area isn’t made for tractor trailers and warehouses — that stuff doesn’t belong in a residential area, but houses do.”

According to a news release from the county executive’s office, county officials anticipate having the final comprehensive rezoning report to the council by March.

Applicant properties can be found online through the Harford County Comprehensive Zoning Tracker. The tracker is accessible from the homepage of the county website and will be updated in real time as applications are processed.

The National Safety and Transportation Board on Wednesday released its preliminary report on the explosion of the home at 2300 Arthurs Woods Drive in Bel Air that killed the homeowner, Ray Corkran, 73, and a BGE contractor, Jose Rodriguez-Alvarado, 35.

It noted that gas and electrical lines were in close proximity in a common trench, similar to what led state regulators to penalize BGE with fines of more than $437,000 for safety violations that caused a 2019 explosion in a Columbia office park.

The NTSB’s initial report on the Bel Air explosion said BGE investigators recovered damaged electrical lines and a gas service line with a hole on the bottom, and detected underground gas in the area of the destroyed home.

The damage to the electrical cables, and especially the hole in the gas line, are key, said a former federal explosions investigator who reviewed the preliminary report at The Sun’s request.

“The hole in the line is significant because the root cause of any natural gas explosion is the gas being where it doesn’t belong,” said Richard Summerfield, a retired agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who now works as a consultant. “Now that they’ve identified how the gas got out of the system, the investigation is going to center on what caused that hole.”

After the NTSB released its preliminary report Wednesday into the Bel Air house explosion, Baltimore Gas and Electric announced steps to enhance system safety and reliability.

The utility company said it had recently implemented “refresher trainings” on gas and electric emergency processes, reinforced procedures on “responding to issues” and “increased oversight of emergency customer calls to the company.”

The Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office previously told The Sun that BGE usually calls local fire departments when it receives reports of gas odors, but did not do so in this case.

The NTSB report said investigators examined the blast site, reviewed BGE’s operational procedures, gathered documentation, conducted interviews and recovered physical evidence for examination.

The report stated that the night before the explosion, the home experienced an electrical outage.

According to the report, the outage prompted a BGE electrical service technician to respond to the scene. That evening, two reports of the odor of gas were made. The first was by the technician who made the report to BGE’s electrical dispatch operator and the second was from a neighbor 0.2 miles away from the home.

According to the report, BGE responded to the neighbor’s report and did not find a leak. The Sun previously reported that a neighbor, Carline Fisher, had called BGE and spoke to a worker who responded.

The following morning, two BGE electrical contractors were working on the electrical repair when the explosion occurred — resulting in the death of one of the contractors, Rodriguez-Alvarado. The second contractor suffered minor injuries, according to the report.

The report stated that in an interview with NTSB investigators, another worker said that he smelled gas in front of the home about 6:05 a.m., just before the explosion.

NTSB said the natural gas distribution system near the home — consisting of a 1 and 1/4-inch diameter plastic main — was installed in 2006. Another service line was a 1/2-inch diameter plastic service line, installed in 2007.

According to the report, the operating pressure of the gas system at the time of the explosion was about 89 pounds per square inch gauge — below the 99 per square inch gauge maximum allowable operating pressure.

The report did not state the cause of the gas leak or the ignition source. NTSB said their investigation is still ongoing.

“Today marks the start of a new school year, and I’m excited to see our students, families and staff come together,” Bulson said. “Let’s take this opportunity to support one another and make the most of the year ahead. Here’s to a great start and a successful year for everyone.”

The school system’s manager of communications, Jillian Lader, said there were no student transportation issues and that the start to the school year went well.

The school year started with no teacher vacancies, 36 vacancies for paraeducators, 25 custodian vacancies, 17 bus driver vacancies and 12 bus attendant vacancies.

There were no cuts in the number of teaching positions this school year, according to the executive director for secondary schools, Mike O’Brien, and the executive director of elementary schools, Dyann Mack.

However, schools did see shifts in student enrollment and programming, which caused reallocation of teaching positions.

“This helped balance class sizes around secondary schools,” O’Brien said.

Mack noted that the school system will continue to review class sizes and enrollment shifts during the first weeks of the school year.

“At this time, we do not have any concerns with the impact of class size on academic performance,” Mack said.

Due to high student populations, Church Creek, Riverside, Magnolia and Emmorton elementary schools will receive portable classrooms this year. However, the school system has not yet received use and occupancy permits for those classrooms.

Numerous capital improvement projects were completed ahead of the new school year, including a new turf field at C. Milton Wright High School, a new track at Aberdeen High School and a professional foods lab at Fallston High School.

The suspect, 43-year-old Joseph Goldman, of Baltimore, entered the Middle River airport illegally when he drove past security, according to Maryland State Police. Goldman then left his vehicle and allegedly entered an aircraft owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group executive chairman and Baltimore Sun co-owner David Smith. The state police department’s Criminal Enforcement Division responded, and a K-9 unit conducted a vehicle scan.

Officials with Martin State Airport could not be reached for comment.

Goldman is charged with felony theft over $100,000, felony grand theft auto, trespassing on private property and trespassing on posted property, and is currently being held without bond, according to online court records.

According to Rally Point, a professional networking site similar to LinkedIn but for the United States military and its veterans, Goldman formerly served in the Army as a military police officer. The profile he created shows that his service dates back to the early 2000s and that he was deployed to Iraq in 2004 and held a “secret” security clearance.

After his time in the military, the Baltimore Police Department executed a search warrant at Goldman’s home in 2016. According to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office at the time, officers located a stash of illegal firearms and numerous tools and parts used to build firearms.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives launched an investigation into Goldman for the firearms, which later led to him being sentenced to a year and a day in prison, as well as three years of supervised release for possessing and building unregistered firearms.

A bond hearing is scheduled for Goldman for the alleged attempted theft of an aircraft on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in the District Court of Baltimore County. His trial date is set for Oct. 16.