Terrell Rheubottom, 38, was stabbed late on Thursday, June 17, 2021, near the intersection of Poplar Grove Street and Brighton Street, in the 2800 block of Brighton Street in Baltimore, and he died of his wounds. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists his death as a homicide by stabbing.
WMAR-2 News, which kept a daily log of the city's killings that month, recorded the attack at 11:58 p.m.: "Terrell Rheubottom, 38, was fatally
stabbed at Poplar Grove and Brighton Street." Police released his name a few days later in a roundup of victims from several days of violence. That roundup, as printed in the Sun and the Capital Gazette, said he "was fatally shot in the 2800 block of Brighton Street," but the Sun's own database and the WMAR log both record the cause as a stabbing. Police did not publicly describe a suspect or a motive.
An obituary posted by Estep Brothers Funeral Home gives a glimpse of who he was. It says Terrell Rheubottom was "born October 4, 1982, to Jacqueline Davis and Anthony Rheubottom," and that "He suddenly departed this life on June 17, 2021." It notes that he was known as "Rell." His name was also read among the city's dead on WYPR's "Names of Baltimore's Fallen" and listed in the Catholic Review's prayers for Baltimore's victims of violence.
The surname is uncommon, and it appears in an earlier Baltimore tragedy. In 2013, a man named Terrell Rheubottom spoke to reporters as the brother of Terrence Rheubottom, a 27-year-old killed in West Baltimore that March, after the man charged in that killing was mistakenly released from custody. A funeral home guestbook for a Terrence J. Rheubottom also lists a Terrell Rheubottom among his relatives. The shared name and the funeral home suggest the two deaths may have struck the same family eight years apart, though no public record confirms that it is the same man.
Much about the night of June 17 remains unknown. The record does not say whether there was an argument or a robbery, whether he knew his attacker, whether he died at the scene or at a hospital, or whether anyone saw the stabbing.
The Sun's homicide map places the 2800 block of Brighton Street in the 21216 ZIP code, inside the city limits. Late on a warm June night, people may well have been out on their steps or walking nearby, and someone may have heard an argument or seen a person leaving the corner.
After the unrest of 2015, Baltimore recorded more than 300 homicides a year for eight straight years, and the share of killings that ended in an arrest fell sharply.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Terrell Rheubottom could be found in news archives or public records. More than five years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Poplar Grove and Brighton streets late on June 17, 2021, or who knew "Rell" and heard talk about who hurt him, may hold the detail detectives need. 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).
