Carmen Rodriguez, a Latina woman, was behind the counter at Kim’s Deli and Grocery near Patterson Park on the evening of December 22, 2019, when a robbery unfolded into something far worse. Police said officers were sent to the store at 157 N. Kenwood Avenue and found her on the floor behind the cashier’s counter with a single gunshot wound to the head; she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators traced the moments leading up to the killing through surveillance footage and witness accounts from the tight-knit neighborhood around the corner of Fayette Street and Kenwood Avenue. According to police and prosecutors, the video showed two men arriving in a dark Honda: one went in first, lingering as if to check the room, then stepped back out and returned to the car. About a minute later, a second man entered with a handgun, confronted Rodriguez at the register, and shot her after demanding money—an attack that authorities said happened in front of her children.
As the case spread through Baltimore, tips began coming in, and the investigation tightened around two names. Terrance Peterson turned himself in and was arrested in January 2020, after authorities circulated images tied to the case. A month later, police announced a second arrest: Martin Brooks, who was charged in connection with the killing and held without bail as the case moved toward court.
The prosecution’s narrative painted the crime as a planned robbery with roles divided—one man to scout, another to storm the register—backed by surveillance footage and digital trails placing the men near the store around the time of the shooting. In court coverage, prosecutors emphasized that the deli video was central, showing the second man stepping up to the counter, taking cash, and then firing the fatal shot. The defense pushed back on identification and investigative gaps, arguing the evidence didn’t prove Brooks was the shooter and highlighting what it described as missing or mishandled documentation around the search and recovery of key evidence.
A jury ultimately convicted Brooks, and on July 3, 2023, a Baltimore City judge imposed what the State’s Attorney’s Office described as the maximum sentence: life plus 35 years. The convictions included felony murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon, along with multiple firearms-related counts, closing one track of the case even as Peterson’s prosecution remained stalled by findings that he was not competent to stand trial.
