Donald Smothers, a former violence interrupter at Baltimore's Cherry Hill Safe Streets site, pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm and was sentenced to five years in prison after Baltimore police found a loaded handgun on him during an April traffic stop on West Mulberry Street.
The Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office announced the sentence, which followed an April 28 stop after officers saw a Land Rover SUV leave a Marathon gas station in the 400 block of West Mulberry Street with expired registration, according to WBFF. Smothers was a passenger and told officers the driver was taking him home, the station reported.
A Loaded Gun and a Prior Murder Conviction
A Loaded Gun and a Prior Murder Conviction Police said they recovered a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun from Smothers, loaded with 13 live 9mm rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. Officers also found a small baggy of suspected crack cocaine in his pants pocket, according to WBFF. Smothers was convicted of felony murder on Jan. 30, 2003, but received a new trial after that conviction was reversed; he later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, according to the Maryland Daily Record and the WBFF report. WBFF also reported that his criminal record dates to the late 1990s.
Maryland sentencing guidelines identify Public Safety Code § 5-133(c) in connection with mandatory minimums for illegal gun possession, according to Maryland sentencing guidelines.
State's Attorney Cites Program's Responsibility
State's Attorney Ivan Bates said Smothers will spend the next five years in prison, framing the case as a test of the balance between second chances and accountability. “People can change, but redemption must be accompanied by accountability and a commitment to leaving crime behind,” Bates said, according to the WBFF report. He added that Safe Streets workers are “entrusted with extraordinary responsibility,” and that Baltimore has an obligation to properly vet the workers it funds with taxpayer dollars so the program's vetting process protects both its integrity and the communities it serves.
Before his arrest, Smothers had worked as a violence interrupter at the Cherry Hill Safe Streets site, leaving the position only months before the loaded handgun was recovered from his waistband, according to reporting cited in a Facebook video report. Safe Streets relies on so-called credible messengers — people whose own history in the criminal justice system is meant to give them standing to de-escalate armed disputes on the street.
Not an Isolated Case
Smothers is not the only Safe Streets worker to face serious gun charges this year. In July, federal prosecutors took over the prosecution of 51-year-old Antoine Burton, an active Safe Streets worker, after state attempted murder charges from a June Park Heights shooting were dropped — a case Hoodline covered in an earlier report on Burton's arrest. The source says Burton was on federal parole, and he may qualify as an Armed Career Criminal, which would carry a mandatory 15-year minimum if the enhancement applies, according to the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office.
Another former site supervisor, David Caldwell, who once oversaw the Belair-Edison Safe Streets program, was arrested in Frederick County in November 2025 for failing to appear on felony drug charges. That arrest followed an October 2023 federal search of his home and site office that uncovered live ammunition and drug packaging supplies, according to CBS News. Program operator LifeBridge Health has acknowledged that being on active federal probation does not automatically disqualify applicants from being hired as violence interrupters, reflecting the program's reliance on people with personal criminal justice history.
Program Oversight Under Scrutiny
Safe Streets is managed by the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, known as MONSE, and has 10 locations, with Catholic Charities among its operators, according to the city of Baltimore. The program's oversight has drawn scrutiny, as Hoodline previously reported.
How Safe Streets Workers Are Selected
According to the Baltimore City information linked above, Safe Streets staff members are screened, interviewed and selected for specific target areas where they serve as credible messengers. FOX45 News reported that community-based organizations perform background checks, the Baltimore Police Department screens applicants' names and hiring panels conduct interviews, while the operating organization makes the final hiring decision: FOX45 News. The materials cited here describe those screening and hiring steps but do not specify a separate citywide firearm policy for violence interrupters. The Baltimore City information also identifies the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE, as the office overseeing Safe Streets. It reports 1,283 mediations across the 10 sites in 2024 and summarizes a Johns Hopkins evaluation that associated the program with a statistically significant 23% reduction in shootings across sites; the evaluation's association does not by itself show that Safe Streets caused every reduction.
Safe Streets' reported activity provides additional context. Baltimore City says the program conducted 1,283 mediations across its 10 sites in 2024. The city also says a Johns Hopkins evaluation found that the weighted average of program effects across sites was associated with a statistically significant 23% reduction in shootings; that finding describes an association and does not establish that the program caused every decline.
