Police in Annapolis, Maryland, say that a woman sitting on a patio area of a hotel was killed by stray bullets.
It happened Tuesday just after 12:20 a.m. at a hotel on West Street. Police said the shots were fired on Pleasant Street, and the woman was not the intended target.
Annapolis police Chief Edward Jackson identified the victim as Michelle Jordan Cummings, 57, of Houston. Jackson said she was struck by bullets more than once.
Nothing in her background suggested that she was the target, Jackson said. “She was here to bring her son.”
Cummings was in Annapolis with her husband to help settle their son in to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was being inducted.
The academy said Cummings was the mother of incoming freshman for the class of 2025 Leonard Cummings III.
“As members of our Naval Academy family, we will do all that we can to support Leonard, his father and the entire Cummings family during this unfathomable time,” Vice Adm. Sean Buck, academy superintendent, said in a statement.
Jackson said that Leonard Cummings III was also a prospect for the school’s football team.
Cummings was with her husband and another couple when she was shot.
Jackson said there was a separate assault that happened on Pleasant Street, where several shots were fired on a parked car that had two people in it. The two people in the car were not struck.
Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley said every resource is being deployed to solve this case.
“Somebody lost their mum on the proudest day of their life,” Buckley said during a news conference Tuesday. A crisis intervention team has been sent to help the family.
This is third homicide in Annapolis this year, Buckley said.
Anyone with information on what happened should call police at 410-260-3439. There is a $2,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or indictment.
Below is the area where it happened.
