http://www.blackpressusa.com/news/Ar...ws&NewsID=2632Baltimore Mourns Parents, Five Children Killed in Alleged ‘Revenge’ Arson by Earl Byrd
BALTIMORE (NNPA)—More than 2,000 friends and neighbors paid last respect to a mother and five children of a Baltimore family who were killed in a house fire believed set by vengeful drug dealers. A day earlier, a seventh family member died from injuries he received in the Oct. 16 fire. Funeral services were held for Angela Maria Dawson, 36; and her children, 9-year-old twins Keith and Kevin, Carnell Jr., 10, Juan Ortiz, 12, and LaWanda Ortiz, 14.
During a press conference, police commissioner Edward Norris, calling the day the saddest in his career, admitted that the reality of life in Baltimore—despite his zero tolerance for drug dealers—is that when a family like the Dawsons is threatened by drug dealers, there is little the police can do besides relocating them for their own protection.
A message of death was sent to Angela and Carnell Dawson when they asked dealers selling drugs in front of their East Baltimore row house to move and set up business elsewhere. The heartless answer from these street thugs came Oct. 4 when they threw two Molotov ****tails into the family home.
As fire swept through their kitchen, and suffocating smoke filled the three-story house, the couple blindly grabbed their five children and stumbled outside into the darkness. They stood there trembling in terror. Mrs. Dawson, realizing the deadly danger posed by the attempted arsonist, wrote a hand-written note to police asking for help.
Two weeks later, on Oct. 16, shortly after midnight, the fear and retaliation the family had expected arrived in flames and death. One resident said the house looked like it “blew up, just burst into flames,” as if caused by “an incendiary device.”
The blaze erupted into a raging fire that swept through the sleeping family’s corner house at 1401 E. Preston St. The mother and her five children were burned to death. Carnell Dawson Sr., 43, jumped through a window, and was in critical condition at the Bay View Burn Center with burns over 80 percent of his body. He died last Wednesday, the day before his wife and children were buried.
Kevin Cartwright, fire department spokesman and former firefighter and paramedic, stood helpless as flames and black smoke poured from all the windows. It took an hour before firemen could enter the inferno and burst through the steel front door. Elevated ladders were raised at the front and back of the roof. It was too late. The entire family, except for the father, had been killed.
Police arrested Darrell Brooks, a 21-year-old neighbor, on Oct. 17, and charged him with the murders by arson of six members of the Dawson family. Additional charges are expected.
Norris said police are looking at other suspects in the case. Meanwhile, police are waiting for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to determine what kind of incendiary device was used.
He said police could not provide protection for the Dawson family, even after the first fire at the home, beyond inviting them to enter the witness protection program. According to reports, they refused, saying the family should not be run out of town by thugs.
“They were murdered in a vicious and vile manner because they tried to do the right thing and fight crime in their community,” a friend said.
“Who wants to be uprooted from their home because drug dealers are conducting business in front of your house?” the friend reasons. “You expect the police to come in and make some arrests and clear this corner and make it safe for decent folks.”
Apparently, the Dawson’s house had become the center of a battleground between a mother who wanted to protect her children and drug dealers who had staked out the corner as their turf.
Relatives called it a case of revenge. “They were getting ready to go to trial,” one relative said, “and I think somebody didn’t want them to testify.”
Norris said that had nothing to do with the murder.
Maryland State Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden stood with neighbors outside the burned-out shell as a black Labrador retriever sniffed through the damp, charred and smoking remains of a family’s belongings, now reduced to a pile of smoldering debris. His voice trembling with emotion, the senator said the city’s struggle against drugs is an “on-going battle.
“We’re talking about terrorism around the world,” he said. “We’ve got terrorism right here with some of these drug dealers.”
He vowed “to get resources so the police in Baltimore can do their job,” and fight the kind of terrorist who would kill a mother and her innocent children for drug turf.
“This family took a stand,” lamented a neighbor who feared being identified. “They saw those ‘Baltimore Believe’ ads and tried to do what the police told them. Fight back. They did that, but it don’t look like they got any help. They came under attack and had to stand alone. And now they’re dead.”
The National Action Network and a host of ministers, sororities and activists gathered on the corner of Preston and Eden recently for a city-wide community vigil.
“To me, this is like an alarm clock that has already gone off,” said Larry Young, morning voice of WBOL-AM radio and a former state senator. “We knew it was going off, but some of us were pressing the snooze button.
“This tragedy shows us it is time to get up, turn off the alarm button and show that this is our community. This must never happen again.”
Meanwhile, ABC's ''Nightline'' took a crew to the embattled neighborhood to air a program about the fate of the Dawsons. Also, family and friends left teddy bears and messages on the landing at the side entrance to the house. “RIP, from Deb,” “I will always love you, Your Cousin,” and “God bless you all,” were written on white cardboard placed on the stoop.
“They got a message,” said Marcus Kelly, looking down the street that was now deserted of drug dealers. “It was a message to them, and a message to all of us in the neighborhood.”
