Convicted Felon Arrested For 9-Year-Old's Shooting In Cherry Hill
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A child, just 9 years old, remains in the hospital after being shot in the stomach when a gunman tries to barge into his home.
It happened in the same Cherry Hill neighborhood where a 1-year-old was shot just months ago.
Rochelle Ritchie has more on the victim and the suspect.
The man accused of shooting that 9-year-old boy is no stranger to the law. He's a convicted felon with a 13-page criminal rap sheet.
Crime scene tape remains on the 1000-block of Bethune Road, where Kenneth Worrell was shot just before midnight inside his home. Police say the man, 37-year-old Kenneth Graham, is now charged with first and second-degree attempted murder.
"It's unacceptable for this event to happen. This guy's a coward," said Chief Darryl De Sousa, Baltimore City Police.
Worrell, a student at Friendship Academy, remains in the hospital, recovering from a gunshot wound to the stomach.
"The bullet went through one place and came out the other," the victim's grandmother, Maudestine Bowden, said.
Bowden tells WJZ Graham tried to barge into their home as she and other family members tried to keep him out.
"My daughter opened the door, she didn't look through the keyhole or nothing," she said. "She cracked the door. That's when she was like, 'Oh my God!' And then I glanced and looked and seen someone with a white thing around their face. Only thing showing was the eyes. So I definitely didn't know who it was. She pushed the door shut, holding it. So I ran over there with her to help hold it. We couldn't get it all the way shut, but we were holding it."
"He ran towards the stairway. And as he ran towards the stairway, the guy was shooting and then it hit him," a family member said.
The piercing screams for help could be heard down the street.
"'Oh my God, Oh my God! He been shot,'" a woman recalled.
Baltimore City police say Graham was quickly tracked down thanks to nearby cameras.
"They were actually monitoring the cameras inside the police station. And it was at that point they saw the suspect run through a wooded area," De Sousa said.
Graham's run-in with the law includes previous charges for second-degree assault, theft, trespassing and drug possession.
Worrell's family says Kenneth, nicknamed "Nook," is in and out of pain at the hospital. And they plan to move.
"I just got to move out of here. It's crazy," said Bowden.
And Graham is also facing several charges of assault, as well as handgun charges.
No one else was injured during the shooting.
Police believe Graham acted alone.
