Charging Documents: Baltimore Police found rifle in floor vent of suspect's home after woman killed
BALTIMORE -- Police have arrested a 56-year-old man in connection with a deadly shooting in Northeast Baltimore, according to authorities.
Officers took Neil Cole-El into custody after they found 52-year-old Cynceray Washington-Greene suffering from a fatal gunshot wound in Baltimore's Belair-Edison neighborhood on Saturday, police said.
The shooting happened in the 2800 block of Clifton Park Terrace a few minutes after 5 p.m. that day.
Charging documents show that Cole-El had flagged down an officer and directed him to Washington-Greene. She was lying on the first floor of a house on Clifton Park Terrace, according to court records.
The officer tried to help Washington-Greene until medics arrived and took over, according to charging documents.
An ambulance took her to Johns Hopkins Hospital where medical personnel pronounced her dead, per court records.
Cole-El told officers that the shooting happened after an unidentified person had entered the residence to sell him an illegal firearm, according to charging documents.
He said that he, the unidentified person, and Washington-Greene were all in the second-floor front bedroom. Cole-El told officers that the unidentified person took the illegal firearm out of a bag and it accidentally went off, striking Washington-Greene, per court records.
Washington-Greene began bleeding from the mouth and the unidentified person left the residence, Cole-El told officers, according to charging documents. That's when Cole-El called 911, per court records.
Charging documents show that investigators sought to corroborate the information Cole-El gave them through the security footage captured by another resident of Clifton Park Terrace.
The security cameras did not show anyone meeting the description of Cole-El's unidentified person, per court records.
Additionally, investigators noted that security devices installed at the home where Washington-Greene had been found, which kept time logs whenever someone opens the front door or rear door, had been tampered with, according to charging documents.
The time from those logs was either missing or had been deleted, including the time frame that would have shown some of the first responders entering the residence, per court records. Investigators believe the missing time indicated that someone had tampered with the security devices.
Other security cameras in the area captured Cole-El going in and out of the residence three times before officers arrived to help Washington-Greene.
Following the death of Washington-Greene, officers obtained a search warrant for the house where they had found Washington-Greene, according to charging documents.
Inside the home, investigators found suspected blood in a bedroom on the second floor, per court records. They found a pair of white shoes with suspected blood on them, too.
They also found a black holster, two cell phones, and a small clear plastic bag containing suspected marijuana on the bed, according to charging documents.
Additionally, they found in the home on top of a refrigerator a box of .22 caliber ammunition with 38 live .22 caliber rounds inside of it, per court records.
Behind the refrigerator, there was a Remington 1187 12-gauge shotgun, according to charging documents.
Additional ammunition was collected from a dresser drawer, and a third cell phone was found under the bed, per court records.
During the search for evidence, investigators found concealed in a floor vent a Ruger .22 long rifle. It contained a spent shell casing, which was still lodged in the chamber, according to charging documents.
The rifle was loaded with a magazine containing eight additional .22 caliber rounds, per court records.
Charging documents show that Cole-El is not allowed to be in the possession of firearms due to convictions in 1992.
Detectives interviewed Cole-El and allege that he is the person responsible for the death of Washington-Greene.
Cole-El has been taken to the Central Booking Intake Facility, which is where he has been charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, various handgun violations, and additional charges, according to authorities.
This is the second time a woman has been found with a deadly gunshot injury in the 2800 block of Clifton Park Terrace within the past few years.
In May 2021, officers found a dead woman inside a home on that block. She, too, had been shot, police said.
Anyone who has information about the shooting should contact homicide detectives at 410-396-2100.
Anonymous tipsters can call the Metro Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-866-7LOCKUP.