Walter Paige Jr., a 48-year-old Black male, was fatally shot on November 30, 2018, in Baltimore, Maryland. The incident occurred around 1:34 p.m. in the 5400 block of Reisterstown Road. An officer on patrol was flagged down by a citizen who reported the shooting. The officer discovered Paige in the driver's seat of a parked car, suffering from a gunshot wound.
He was transported to Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The events leading to the shooting began with a verbal argument between Paige and a man identified as Karl Peck, which escalated into a physical altercation. According to court documents, an unidentified Black male joined Peck in assaulting Paige. During this struggle, a witness heard a gunshot, and it was at this point that Paige was shot. Following the gunshot, Peck and the unidentified man fled the scene on foot.
Investigations led to the arrest of Karl Peck. He claimed that after their argument, Paige went to his vehicle and returned with a knife that he swung at him. Surveillance video captured the entire incident in the parking lot. Peck was subsequently charged and found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter and a consecutive 20 years with all but 13 years suspended, to be followed by five years of supervised probation. The man who fired the fatal shot, described as a masked man, was never identified.
