STRAY BULLET KILLS GIRL IN FRONT OF HER HOME

Police Say Shooting Over Drugs Claimed 13-Year-Old's Life; 'She Was Innocent'

Shenea Counts, suffering through another humid night in Baltimore, grabbed
a quarter, stepped onto South Bentalou Street and walked to Rosie's corner
bar, where a sign in the window advertises: "Cup of ice: 25."

The 13-year-old, slurping on the fast-melting cubes, walked back toward her
small rowhouse across the street. She was shot just steps from her front
door -- struck in the chest by a stray bullet fired during what police said
was a drug dispute at the corner.

Shenea ran inside and collapsed. The little girl, who wore her hair in
cornrows, who loved music so much that she named her new puppy Beethoven,
was dead less than three months after she had entered her teen-age years.

"She was my baby, my precious one," said her mother, Trina Branch, 30, who
was working -- tending bar at a nearby tavern -- when her daughter was shot
about 12: 30 a.m. yesterday. "She was caught in the wrong place at the
wrong time. She was innocent, and I want her back."

Recent shootings have brought unwanted attention to a city that has
struggled with more than 300 homicides a year for the past decade, but with
140 killings since January, is on a pace to fall below that mark.

Shenea's death comes a week after a Park Heights pastor was killed in a
robbery outside his home, an attack that resonated from church pulpits to
City Hall. The Rev. Junior Lee Gamble is to be buried today.

"Even though murders are down in Baltimore, it doesn't diminish the fact
that tragedies such as this still impact families, citizens and
communities," said police spokesman Robert W. Weinhold Jr.

Police have made no arrest in Shenea's death, the latest of five since
March in Carrollton Ridge and neighboring Shipley Hill.

The target of the attack, police said, was Michael Clemons, 21, who had
walked out of Rosie's at South Bentalou and Ashton streets and climbed into
a friend's truck. Police said two men, who apparently had been lying in
wait outside the bar, approached Clemons and his compan ion. One was armed
with a .45- caliber handgun.

Police said the driver jumped out of the truck and ran across the street.
Clemons tried to run away as the gunman opened fire. He was hit in the
right leg and right buttocks. An errant bullet hit Shenea.

Investigators have questioned Clemons, who was in stable condition
yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, and his friend, but would not
say whether they cooperated. Neither could be reached for comment
yesterday. Several witnesses said the gunman tried to force Clemons out of
the truck in what looked like a carjacking.

Maj. John L. Bergbower, the commander of the Southwestern District, said
the attack appears "to be drug-related, and it was over territory." He said
the gunman was seen driving away in a Jeep Cherokee.

The Carrollton Ridge neighborhood is a struggling 35-square block enclave
of mostly two-story rowhouses and corner bars north of Wilkens Avenue,
south of West Pratt Street and east of the West Side Shopping Center.

Its community association, run by Connie Fowler, is in constant contact
with police, who have tried for years to oust drug dealers and addicts from
the residential streets.

Carrollton Ridge is one of five designated "hot spot" areas in Baltimore,
targeted in a statewide initiative to pump money into neighborhoods
overtaken by crime. About $3.5 million in state and federal grants has been
distributed to rid 36 such communities of crime across Maryland.

Two years ago, the neighborhood was one of the city's few successful
comeback stories. Now, it is on the verge of slipping back. Five killings
last year between March and June; five more this year, all in the past four
months.

Crime in the neighborhood is down 16 percent this year. But violent acts,
including armed robberies and shootings, are up nearly 8 percent. "It had
quieted down significantly at the beginning of the year," Bergbower said.

Fowler called yesterday's shooting "disgusting" but praised police for
doing their best. "I think things were getting better," she said. "Then all
of a sudden we got the drug traffic back."

Rosie's bartender Buddy McCrady has a different view. He had served Shenea
her cup of ice; had poured drinks for Clemons and his friends; then had
dialed 911 when Clemons raced back into the bar, spilling his blood on the
white tile floor.

"It could have been anybody's child who got shot last night," said McCrady,
38. He lives above the corner bar, the center of activity at Bentalou and
Ashton, which throws open its doors at 6 a.m., where a 40-ounce "Steel
Reserve" malt liquor sells for $2, where bar stools fill before noon.

Every day, he said, is a struggle to keep the corners clear of drug
dealers, lookouts and addicts. "We try to keep them away, but it's
impossible."

Francis J. Smidt, who has lived near Carrollton Ridge for 56 years and is
running for a 6th District City Council seat, said the neighborhood is
"just like Beirut. The police just ride by. They need to walk in this
neighborhood."

Shenea, her mother and siblings -- Treniece Regmond, 14, and Deaven Miller,
7 -- moved into Carrollton Ridge about five months ago. Shenea attended
Calverton Middle School, where she excelled in chorus and sang gospel songs.

Rambunctious and outgoing, Shenea was a familiar sight on South Bentalou
Street, and the afternoon before she was killed, she carried her brown and
white boxer puppy, named for the famous composer, from house to house to play.

Branch said she was at work at a nearby bar and her children were home with
her husband, Arthur Branch, 30. She said her daughter apparently wandered
outside because she was thirsty. She talked to her best friend and
neighbor, Teyira Falls, 12, before she walked the few steps to Rosie's.

Teyira saw the shooting from her front door and raced to wake up her
mother, Pam Rheubottom, 34.

"She came in and said, `Mom, Shenea got shot,' " Rheubottom said.

Two homicide detectives, Homer Pennington and Francis Miller, returned to
the corner yesterday morning to search for clues in the daylight. The men
charged with solving the city's latest killing slowly shook their heads.
"It's a tragedy," Miller muttered.

Across the street, an 11-year-old girl named Inge Harris wiped sweat from
her forehead with a cold bottle of spring water. She attended the same
school as Shenea, and said she was outside her house when the shots rang out.

"It's real dangerous out here," she said, taking a sip of water. "You
shouldn't be outside at night. I only like to come out in the daylight."