Police say a late-night encounter in a Northwest Baltimore parking lot turned deadly when 49-year-old Rene Parks allegedly shot her estranged husband once in the neck as he sat behind the wheel of a parked car.
Officers were called on the night of March 31 to a report of gunfire and found 43-year-old Garreth Parks Jr. gravely wounded in a vehicle in northwest Baltimore. Medics rushed him to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Detectives took Rene Parks into custody the next day, April 1, and she is now charged in connection with the killing. Investigators say the case remains an active homicide probe.
What police say
Responding officers were sent to the 3700 block of West Belvedere Avenue after reports of shots being fired. In the back of a parking lot, they found a silver vehicle and a passenger pressing a cloth to the driver’s neck in a desperate attempt to slow the bleeding.
Charging documents allege that Parks Jr. and his girlfriend had pulled into the lot when another car rolled up, and a woman fired a single round through the driver’s-side window. Police later identified the suspected shooter as Rene Parks and arrested her at her Baltimore County home on homicide and weapons charges, according to the Baltimore Police Department.
Charging documents and witness accounts
Prosecutors say the victim’s girlfriend gave investigators a close-range account of the shooting. According to charging documents, she told detectives that Parks walked up, pulled out a purple handgun and fired through the open driver’s-side window, hitting Parks Jr. in the neck. The girlfriend then tried to help him as he bled in the front seat.
Police later executed a search of Rene Parks’ home and recovered a firearm. Investigators wrote in court papers that the weapon they seized did not match the purple handgun the witness described. Those details appear in local coverage and court filings reviewed by CBS Baltimore.
Investigation is ongoing
Homicide detectives with the Northwest District say they are still gathering forensic evidence and tracking down witnesses. As of now, investigators have not publicly said whether ballistic testing has linked the recovered firearm to the fatal shot.
Detectives have served multiple search warrants in connection with the March 31 killing and are asking anyone with information to come forward as they work to piece together what led up to the confrontation, WMAR2 News reported.
A complicated background
The case has drawn extra scrutiny in part because of Garreth Parks Jr.’s history in the courts. Public records and earlier filings show he had been involved in long-running litigation tied to a 1999 conviction, making his name familiar to some legal observers long before the shooting.
Those prior matters are detailed in court documents and in compiled legal records, which have been cited by family members and neighbors trying to make sense of the latest violence. The background appears in previously filed public dockets and online court filings.
Legal outlook
Prosecutors have charged Rene Parks with first- and second-degree murder, along with multiple firearms offenses. The case will proceed in Baltimore City Circuit Court through the usual rounds of arraignments, motions, and pretrial hearings.
Under Maryland law, a first-degree murder conviction can carry a potential life sentence, with separate penalties possible for gun convictions, according to state criminal-law summaries. FindLaw outlines the relevant statutes and sentencing ranges.
Court records indicate that proceedings remain pending and that, as of early April, no defense attorney was listed for Parks in public filings. Homicide detectives have asked anyone with information to contact the Northwest Homicide Unit at 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP as the case moves through the legal system.
The arrest and early charging documents have been reported by CBS Baltimore.
