A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury has found 26-year-old Steven Young Jr. not guilty of assault and weapons charges stemming from a shootout that erupted outside a hotel steps from Johns Hopkins Hospital, even though he was the one who ended up with a bullet wound and walked into a hospital seeking treatment. Jurors returned the acquittal after a two-day trial, clearing him of first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, discharging a firearm, and having a handgun on his person.
The case centered on gunfire just after 1 a.m. on January 12 near the Residence Inn by Marriott at 800 North Wolfe Street, according to Baltimore Witness. Police say Young and another individual had been with a group of people on the hotel's sixth floor, and that a member of that group later pulled out a handgun outside the building and began chasing the vehicle carrying Young and his companion, per court documents cited by the outlet.
Gunfire Traced From the Hotel to a Nearby Corner
City surveillance footage reviewed by police reportedly showed Young opening fire on an unknown man on the 1900 block of Ashland Avenue, with the unknown man returning fire near the corner of East Wolfe Street and Ashland Avenue. Officers who responded to reports of gunfire on the 900 block of North Wolfe Street found a blood trail stretching from 1900 Ashland Avenue to the 900 block of North Washington Street, and recovered eight spent .40-caliber shell casings along with a bullet fragment — but no handgun was ever found at the scene.
Young was struck in the right buttock, per the station's earlier coverage of the case, and also suffered a wound to his groin. He eventually walked into Good Samaritan Hospital, roughly five miles north of the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus where the shooting happened, and told the emergency workers who transported him that he had been shot at random and knew nothing about the gunfire.
Defense Pointed to a Muzzle Flash on Video
At trial, defense attorney Christopher Purpura argued Young was not the first person to fire a gun during the incident. Purpura told jurors that recovered video showed a muzzle-flash spark when the first shooter — described as dressed in all black — opened fire, and he framed his client as someone who was shot while fleeing rather than someone who instigated the gunfight.
Prosecutors had pushed for a conviction and, before trial, offered Young a plea deal of 10 years for first-degree assault and 20 years for handgun use. Judge Lynn S. Mays warned him that going to trial exposed him to as much as 66 years in prison with a 10-year mandatory minimum without parole, but Young rejected the offer and proceeded to trial after consulting with his defense team, the outlet reported.
Two Charges Left Unresolved
The jury did not reach a verdict on two of the more serious counts against Young: using a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, and possessing controlled dangerous substances while armed with a firearm. Those hung counts leave open whether prosecutors will pursue a retrial, a question the case has not yet answered.
Maryland law treats those unresolved charges seriously. Under Maryland Public Safety Article § 5-133, possessing a regulated firearm after a disqualifying conviction carries a mandatory minimum of five years in prison without parole and up to 15 years, according to FindLaw. Separately, using a handgun during a crime of violence under Maryland Criminal Law § 4-204 carries its own five-year mandatory minimum without parole, with a maximum sentence of 20 years, per the Smith Martella Law Group.
Jury selection in the case was itself delayed by a day, pushed from August 10 to August 11 because of a citywide juror shortage in Baltimore City Circuit Court, before proceedings resumed under Judge Mays.
A Hotel With a Troubled Recent History
The Residence Inn at 800 North Wolfe Street sits inside the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus at the signalized intersection of Wolfe Street and Ashland Avenue, an extended-stay property with street-level retail and terrace dining near the medical research complex, according to MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate. It is not the first time violence has touched the building. Hoodline previously reported that a 19-year-old was sentenced to 25 years for a hotel shooting death on the 12th floor of the same Residence Inn, tied to a fatal party shooting from November 2024.
Together, the two cases have renewed scrutiny of security at extended-stay hotels clustered around the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, where repeated violent incidents have drawn major police investigations in recent years. For now, Young's acquittal closes most of the case against him, though the unresolved firearm and drug counts mean the legal fallout from the January 12 gunfire outside the Residence Inn may not be finished.
