18-year-old Brooklyn Day shooting suspect to be transferred to juvenile facility pretrial
BALTIMORE - Tristan Jackson, an 18-year-old charged in last summer's Brooklyn Day mass shooting, has been ordered to be transferred from an adult jail to a juvenile facility.
Baltimore City prosecutors fear it could lead to his pretrial release.
Jackson is facing 57 charges related to July's shooting that killed two and injured 28 more. He was arrested in August.
He's facing charges of murder conspiracy, attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment.
Jackson is among five people charged from that shooting, but non are charged directly with the murders of 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi and 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez.
Detectives wrote in court records that Jackson was on GPS monitoring from another case, and he turned 18 two months before the shooting.
Last week, a judge ordered Jackson to be transferred to a youth facility because juvenile services have an open case.
"That is an extremely uncommon situation," attorney Joe Pappafotis said. "It's a situation I have not personally seen outside of this case."
Pappafotis, a legal expert and a former public defender, said Jackson will see some benefits from the transfer.
"That sort of pretrial status is, from my understanding, a much different setting in a juvenile facility as opposed to an adult facility," Pappafotis said.
The Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office said Jackson's adult case should take priority over his juvenile matter, saying in part, "As it stands, DJS does not consider public safety when determining whether a youth should be detained, and we fear the possibility that DJS will allow him to be released back into the community even though a judge has already found him to be a threat to the community."
The Department of Juvenile Services could not comment on the case.
However, Pappafotis says Jackson's "no-bail" status from the adult case will make any release a long shot.
"I think it would be extremely unlikely and there wouldn't be a mechanism legally for the release of that individual from a DJS facility," Pappafotis said.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott on Wednesday said he will wait for Jackson to be held accountable in the adult system.
"My job is to make sure our police arrest these individuals," Scott said. "We are going to be in Annapolis. It is my top public safety piece of legislation to change the outdated policies around home monitoring. But, that's not just for youth. That's for adults, too."
Maryland judiciary officials say they can't comment on pending matters, but the state's public safety and corrections website still lists Jackson's holding facility as Central Booking, the adult jail.
Jackson is scheduled to have a hearing in his adult case next month.
