An evening that should have been filled with celebration and youthful joy took a tragic turn, resulting in the death of 18-year-old Genesis Marie McCarter-Berretto of Gaithersburg, Maryland. On May 13, 2018, the young female was attending an after-prom party in Frederick, Maryland, when an argument broke out and ended in gunfire.
The party, held at a residence on Weybridge Road, was shattered by violence when a physical altercation that began in the basement spilled outside.
Ean Lanell Davis-Lattimore, who was 17 at the time, was identified by witnesses as the individual who, following the dispute, fired a gun toward the house. In the chaos that ensued, Genesis was struck by a bullet in the neck. When police and emergency medical services arrived at the scene, they found her near the front door with a gunshot wound to her upper body. Despite life-saving efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene. A second victim, a juvenile male, was also struck by a bullet in the leg but sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The investigation quickly led to the identification and arrest of Ean Lanell Davis-Lattimore. He was taken into custody and charged as an adult with multiple offenses, including first and second-degree murder. The investigation revealed that neither Genesis nor the other young victim were the intended targets of the shooting. The shots were fired in the direction of the house after the argument with another partygoer had escalated. Eight shell casings were recovered from the driveway of the home.
In August 2019, Ean Davis-Lattimore, then 18, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Genesis McCarter-Berretto. As a result of his plea, he was sentenced to 10 years in the Division of Corrections. The judge recommended that he be placed in a youth program administered by the Division of Corrections and that she would consider his sentence if he were to successfully complete the program at the Patuxent Institution. Following his release from prison, Davis-Lattimore will be on five years of supervised probation.
