Joyce Lavania Alston

On a late Saturday night in Baltimore, the hum of the city was shattered by gunfire. It was June 22, 2013, on the 1400 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, where Joyce Lavania Alston, a 49-year-old Black/African American woman, was sitting in a car. Just before midnight, the scene turned tragic when both Alston and another individual, 20-year-old Gervontae Burgess, were shot.

Responding to the call, Central District police officers arrived to a scene of chaos. Both Alston and Burgess were found ...