Charles Erdman was 65 years old when a minor parking lot collision in the 5800 block of Erdman Avenue in East Baltimore ended with him run over and dragged beneath a sport utility vehicle on Saturday, March 3, 2007. He died of blunt force injuries on Friday, March 9, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists his death, recorded on March 15, as a homicide.
The Baltimore Police Department investigated.
According to the Washington Examiner, the crash happened in the parking lot of Urban Auto Parts. After the collision, Erdman "got out of his car and attempted to exchange information with the men in the Explorer," a Ford Explorer carrying a driver and a passenger. After a brief conversation, police said, the driver got back into the SUV and drove over him. "The driver of the Explorer then slowed down and looked at Mr. Erdman, who was caught under the vehicle," city police spokesman Donny Moses told the newspaper. "The driver turned the steering wheel and accelerated."
The Examiner reported that Erdman was freed from the SUV but was run over again, and that the driver and passenger left the scene. He was listed in critical condition at the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus, where he died six days later. Police said the Explorer's license plate had been stolen that February.
A homicide detective's report, quoted by the Examiner, described how the encounter turned. The driver "became agitated and stated he had to go," the detective wrote. "Mr. Erdman, who was already in front of the Ford Explorer, put his hands up and requested the driver to stop again. At that time, the driver of the Explorer accelerated striking Mr. Erdman with the truck." Police said his vest caught on the undercarriage and he was dragged, and that an employee of the auto parts store screamed "Stop! Please stop!" before the vehicle drove over him again.
That fall, police obtained a first-degree murder warrant and arrested a suspect, after receiving a letter that named him and a witness picked his picture from a photo array, the Examiner reported. But a 2007 homicide list kept by the Baltimore blog chamspage records that all charges against that man were later dropped. No conviction of anyone else for Erdman's death could be found. No obituary for Erdman could be found.
Erdman Avenue is a busy commercial road in East Baltimore, lined with auto businesses, stores and the Erdman Shopping Center. A store employee was there that day, which suggests other people may also have seen the Explorer or its passenger.
Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case that led to a conviction in the death of Charles Erdman could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was at or near the Urban Auto Parts lot in the 5800 block of Erdman Avenue in March 2007, or who knows who was riding in a Ford Explorer with stolen tags that spring, may hold information that could still help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
