On a Tuesday evening in March of 2016, the bustling atmosphere of a Baltimore barbershop was shattered by sudden violence. Inside Rod's Barbershop on East Monument Street, 45-year-old Kenneth Collins was fatally shot in what authorities would later describe as a targeted attack. The incident, which occurred shortly after 9 p.m. on March 15th, was not a random act but the culmination of a festering dispute over an illegal electricity hookup and an unpaid debt.
The investigation into the
death of the male barber quickly led police to two individuals: Andre Mosby, then 31, and Ignatius Lawrence, 32. According to prosecutors, Collins had been involved in illegally restoring power for several residences, including the barbershop where he worked. A disagreement arose between Collins and Mosby, who was known as the 'BGE dude,' over money owed for a manipulated BGE meter. This conflict escalated, with Mosby allegedly plotting to kill Collins.
On the night of the shooting, Mosby drove his friend, Ignatius Lawrence Jr., to the barbershop. While Mosby waited outside, Lawrence entered the establishment and shot Collins. After the fatal encounter, Mosby drove the getaway car as they fled the scene. The investigation proceeded, and both men were soon apprehended and charged in connection with the murder.
The legal proceedings that followed brought a measure of justice for the killing of Kenneth Collins. Ignatius Lawrence Jr., the man who pulled the trigger, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. For his role in the crime, he received a life sentence, supplemented by a consecutive 20 years for use of a firearm during a felony violent crime and a concurrent 15 years for possession of a firearm with a felony conviction. Andre Mosby, the orchestrator of the fatal confrontation, was found guilty of second-degree murder. He was initially sentenced to a total of 50 years in prison. In January 2023, a judge modified Mosby's sentence to 50 years with all but 30 years suspended, to be followed by five years of supervised probation.
