BALTIMORE (AP) — A man was shot and killed after swinging a baseball bat during a confrontation with people who were cleaning windshields for cash at a downtown Baltimore intersection, according to police.
The bat-wielding man — Timothy Reynolds, 48, of Baltimore — was driving through an intersection near the city’s Inner Harbor on Thursday afternoon when he encountered so-called squeegee workers and had a heated interaction, Commissioner Michael Harrison told reporters. Police released Reynolds’ name and hometown on Friday.
Squeegee workers, also known as squeegee kids, consist mostly of teens from low-income neighborhoods who clean drivers’ windshields at intersections in exchange for money. Some drivers in Baltimore have complained about them.
Reynolds drove through the intersection, parked his car and came back with a baseball bat, Harrison said.
“He swung the bat at one or more of those squeegee workers. In return, one of the squeegee workers pulled out a gun and fired, striking this male victim,” the commissioner said, adding that police didn’t know if Reynolds hit anyone with the bat.
Reynolds, who was white, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The workers fled the scene on foot, Harrison said. No arrests had been made as of late Thursday afternoon.
A witness told The Baltimore Sun that he saw a squeegee worker shoot Reynolds after he got out of his car with the bat. Cody Bro, who was visiting Baltimore for a convention, said he saw the driver “arguing with one of the squeegee people — the people who squeegee your windows.”
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