In the summer of 2023, the life of 52-year-old Cynceray Washington-Greene, a Black female from Baltimore, Maryland, was tragically cut short in a shooting incident. On July 8, police responded to a call at a residence in the 2800 block of Clifton Park Terrace. Upon arrival, they found Washington-Greene with life-threatening gunshot wounds. She was quickly transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was pronounced deceased.
At the scene, a male suspect, 56-year-old Neil Cole-El, was
taken into custody. Initially, Cole-El told investigators a fabricated story about an unidentified man who had come to sell him an illegal firearm. He claimed the gun accidentally discharged, striking Washington-Greene, and that the supposed seller then fled. However, inconsistencies in his account soon became apparent to detectives. A search of the residence uncovered a firearm hidden in a vent, and investigators discovered that surveillance footage from the home had been deleted.
Faced with the mounting evidence, Cole-El's story changed. He eventually admitted to illegally possessing the firearm and confessed that it had accidentally discharged while he was handling it, leading to Washington-Greene's death. His fear following the unintentional shooting reportedly motivated his attempt to cover up the true circumstances of the incident.
Neil Cole-El was initially charged with first and second-degree murder, along with various handgun violations. In a later court proceeding on April 8, 2024, he accepted a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and handgun-related charges. For the firearm use during a violent crime, he received a sentence of 20 years with all but five years suspended. He was also sentenced to a consecutive five years for involuntary manslaughter and a concurrent five-year sentence for the illegal possession of a regulated firearm. During the legal proceedings, Washington-Greene's family expressed their profound grief and disbelief over the events that led to her death.
