RECORDINGS, COURT DOCUMENTS SHOW DAWSON FAMILY'S BATTLES

911, 311 Requests For Help Made One Month Before Fire Show Fear, Frustration

At least 18 months before an arson fire that killed seven members of the
Dawson family in East Baltimore, the father was chasing drug dealers off
his front stoop to protect his children, court records show.

And in the month before the family's house was set ablaze Oct. 16, Carnell
Dawson and his wife, Angela, made repeated calls to police for help. Their
voices - often frustrated or desperate - can be heard on tape recordings
provided by police to The Sun.

In one call, made by Carnell Dawson on Oct. 1, he complains that several
dealers had surrounded his house and were menacing his family, apparently
in retaliation.

"I'm going to court tomorrow for a guy that busted out my windows and all,
and they let him out of jail," Dawson said. "He's got reinforcements. The
drug dealers are all around my house. ... My wife is terrified, and she's
crying. ... They are all around my house, trying to do something to my kids
and my wife. ... They said they were going to bust up the windows and shoot
up my house."

Police sent officers to the house to chase them away.

As preparations proceed for the September trial of Darrell L. Brooks, the
21-year-old charged in federal court with setting the fire, attorneys will
likely delve into their neighborhood struggles. After the fire, police and
neighbors said the family was targeted because they had persistently fought
drug dealing.

The tapes and court records reveal a compelling - albeit fragmentary -
record of the family's back-and-forth battles with neighborhood thugs and
dealers who set up shop on the family's corner at Eden and Preston streets
in the heart of East Baltimore.

35 Calls

Police officials say 35 calls were made from the Dawsons' address at 1401
E. Preston St. to dispatchers at the city's 911 and 311 center between June
26 and Oct. 16. Because the agency routinely erases older dispatch
recordings, The Sun obtained only recordings of calls made in the month
before the fire.

Court records also provide a vivid description of the family's efforts,
dating back more than a year before the fire.

The first documented effort by a Dawson family member to rid their corner
of drugs was just after noon March 21, 2001, when Carnell Dawson tried to
chase away a dealer.

Dawson told police he spotted Joseph Bullock, 40, standing in front of his
house hawking $10 packages of drugs. Dawson said that he asked Bullock to
leave because he feared for his children, according to court records.

"You can't tell me to leave the corner," the man yelled, before reaching
into his waistband as if to pull out a gun, Dawson said.

Dawson called police, who later arrested Bullock and charged him with
second-degree assault. Bullock pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four
years' probation.

Trouble Of Their Own

But as Dawson and his wife were trying to protect their children, they were
running into trouble themselves. In May 2001, Angela Dawson was arrested
and charged with assault after punching and kicking her husband in front of
police officers.

It was not the first time she was in trouble with police, having been
arrested several times on minor charges. In 1994, she was stabbed twice in
the chest and back in a fight with a neighborhood woman, court records show.

In December 2001, Carnell Dawson was arrested by police who spotted him
buying drugs a few blocks from his house. Police seized four vials of crack
cocaine from his pocket. Dawson was given probation before judgment by a
District Court judge.

The Dawsons do not appear in public records for the next nine months, when
they accused a neighbor in what appears to be a series of increasingly
violent face-offs.

In the first case, filed Aug. 23, last year, Angela Dawson wrote that
Johnathan L. Colbert, 18, whom she refers to by the name John L. Henry,
slapped her.

Nearly three weeks later, Carnell Dawson alleged that the same man, who
lived around the corner in the 1200 block of N. Eden St., broke one of his
windows and threatened his wife.

As the Dawsons prepared for court in those cases, they were calling 911 and
311 to complain about Colbert and others. The first still-existing
recording of a call was placed Sept. 25 last year.

"A guy walked around the corner and hit me in my chest with a bottle,"
Angela Dawson said. "It's right on my steps." (audio)

That night, Carnell Dawson called 311, the police nonemergency number. He
said he was "having problems with these people" at Preston and Eden streets.

"The same thing, with the drug dealers, smoking blunts on the corner,"
Dawson said, using the street term for a cigar filled with marijuana. "Tell
them to move along. They have busted out my windows twice." (audio)

About 10 minutes later, Dawson called 311 again. He said an officer chased
the people away. "Now, they're back out front, hollering the same thing,
'Red tops, black tops,'" Dawson said, using slang terms employed by dealers
to promote their product.

"A couple of them ran, ... but now they are back again," Dawson said. (audio)

The next day, Dawson complained about someone throwing bottles, trying to
break his windows. He identified a potential suspect - "His name is
Durrell," Dawson said. (audio)

It is not clear whether Dawson was referring to Darrell Brooks, who would
later be charged in the fatal fire.

A Sept. 29 call shows Dawson's frustration when dealers set up shop outside
his home.

"Police came through earlier and they ran them off Caroline and Preston,"
Dawson said. "Now the drug dealers are on my corner, making noise and ...
smoking reefer." (audio)

He also called 911 when his house was attacked by an arsonist Oct. 3. No
one was injured.

"Somebody just gas-bombed my house," Dawson said. "Could I have some police
over here now?" (audio)

The next day, he called 911.

"I'm at 1401 East Preston," Dawson said. "You know my house got firebombed
last night, cocktailed? These guys are back around the corner in front of
my house ... smoking reefer. ... The same ones I've been having problems with."

Police also provided recordings of emergency calls from horrified neighbors
reporting the fire that consumed the corner rowhouse about 2:20 a.m. Oct. 16.

"Oh my God, get a fire company out here quick," one woman told a
dispatcher. "There are five little children in this house. Eden and Preston
street is a murder scene. There are five little babies in that house." (audio)

The calls can be heard at http://www.sunspot.net/dawsoncalls.