Two men have been arrested in connection with a high school shooting that injured two teenage boys in February.
Frederick Police say 21-year-old Brandon Tyler and 19-year-old Chandler Davenport were arrested Tuesday. Police say that Davenport lured the victims outside Frederick High School's gymnasium in a planned attack Feb. 4, and that Tyler was the gunman. Both men are from Frederick.
The teens were shot while Frederick High's junior varsity basketball game played crosstown rival Gov. Thomas Johnson High.
The shooting had some gang connection and the investigation isn't over, Frederick police Lt. Clark Pennington said.
"We are still trying to identify other individuals that may have information, so I can't comment on any additional suspects at this time," Pennington told a news conference.
A Frederick County judge denied bail Wednesday afternoon for Tyler and set Davenport's bail at $2 million.
Their attorney, Assistant Public Defender Sean Mukherjee, said there's no physical evidence connecting Tyler to the gun. He said both men are presumed innocent.
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Tyler and Davenport are charged with four counts each of first-degree assault, use of a handgun in a felony or violent crime, and reckless endangerment. Each is also charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree assault.
The victims, ages 14 and 15 when they were shot, are recovering from their wounds. One was shot in the leg and one in the back with a .380-caliber, semi-auto handgun that Pennington said police have not recovered.
Pennington said police believe the victims and defendants knew each other, but he wouldn't say how, citing the continuing investigation.
"They have some ongoing relationship and they are obviously at ends but I'm not going to get into the motive," he said.
Both defendants have police records. Tyler had charges dropped in a 2013 second-degree assault case and a 2011 concealed-weapon case. He was acquitted of another concealed-weapon charge in November. Assistant State's Attorney Lindell Angel said he had a juvenile-court conviction on a second-degree assault charge.
Davenport has a violation-of-probation hearing scheduled May 6 on an August conviction for second-degree assault. He was given an 18-month suspended sentence, fined $200 and ordered to make restitution of $9,900 in that case. An apparently unrelated concealed-weapon charge in Worcester County was dropped in August.
Interim police Chief Patrick Grossman said he understood how the shooting had alarmed residents of the city of 68,000, about 40 miles west of both Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
"We feel attacked where we feel the most vulnerable," Grossman said.
Frederick County Public Schools spokesman Michael Doerrer said the schools are safe.
"Gangs are not a school issue per se, they're a community issue," he said.
