A 29-year-old Grasonville man will spend five years behind bars after opening fire on a car carrying two people, one of them a relative, during a drive-by shooting at Ewing Pond Park last fall. Zion Cook pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault and reckless endangerment, closing out a case that began when another vehicle pulled alongside his victims and started shooting.
The shooting happened on October 30, 2025, when two people sitting inside a car at the Grasonville park found themselves under fire from a second vehicle that pulled up beside them, according to WBOC. That same day, deputies with the Queen Anne's County Office of the Sheriff responded to the University of Maryland Shore Emergency Center in Queenstown for injuries tied to the attack, per MyEasternShoreMD. One of the two victims was airlifted or transported to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with what was described as a non-life-threatening injury.
Investigators Zeroed In On a Family Connection
As detectives dug into the case, they identified Cook as the shooter and discovered he was related to one of the people he'd targeted, the outlet reports. That family tie added an unsettling layer to what was already a brazen act of violence in a public park. Sheriff Gary Hofmann said the victims survived the incident, even as the case underscored just how close it came to a far worse outcome.
Cook spent months as a wanted man before the Maryland State Police State Apprehension Team tracked him down and took him into custody in April, according to the same report. The gap between the shooting and his arrest left the case open for roughly half a year before authorities caught up with him.
Guilty Plea Brings a 25-Year Sentence, Mostly Suspended
On September 18, Cook pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and reckless endangerment. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison with all but five years suspended, meaning he'll serve five years of active incarceration followed by five years of probation once he's released, the sheriff's office reported. His reckless endangerment sentence was fully suspended. Officials noted that the active incarceration portion of the sentence fell within the Maryland Sentencing Guidelines recommendation for the felony assault charge.
Sheriff Hofmann framed the outcome as both a resolution and a warning for the community. “This case is a stark reminder of the devastating consequences of gun violence and the danger created when individuals choose to resolve disputes with firearms,” he said, according to the same account. Hofmann added that authorities remain committed to pursuing justice and holding violent offenders accountable in Queen Anne's County.
The case adds to a broader statewide conversation about gun violence trends, even as the circumstances in Grasonville remain a deeply local story about a family dispute that spilled into gunfire at a public park. The Maryland Department of Health maintains a dashboard tracking firearm-related deaths, emergency department visits and related circumstances across the state, broken down by county, ZIP code, age group, sex, race and ethnicity. For Queen Anne's County residents, though, the lasting takeaway is simpler: a dispute between relatives nearly turned fatal in a place meant for recreation, and the man responsible is now headed to prison.
