Adonay Dixon John Childs Fox 45John Childs on left, Adonay Dixon on right, image via WBFF-TV.It was just a few weeks ago when Black gangs were being praised by clergy and authorities in Baltimore for doing a better job than police of keeping the peace in the wake of the Freddie Gray riots.
Since then the murder rate has skyrocketed as criminals have free rein in Baltimore as police, in response to being demonized by elected officials and the community, have held back from aggressively enforcing the law.
Last Sunday morning, two reputed members of the Black gang the Bloods horrifically raped and murdered a sixteen year-old Black girl in the basement of her grandmother’s home, then set her body on fire, according to Baltimore police.
Baltimore City College high school junior Arnesha Bowers was targeted by two young men she thought were her friends, twenty-three year-old Adonay Dixon and twenty-year-old John Childs, because they thought her grandmother, whom she lived with, had money.
Bowers was picked up by her grandmother last Saturday from the apartment building where Dixon and Childs lived after attending a party with them, according to WJZ-TV. Dixon followed them home on a bicycle and returned with Childs later early Sunday morning when they knew the grandmother would be at work on an overnight hospital shift.
Police said the duo claimed their plan was to just rob the home and place Bowers in a chokehold if she woke up during the burglary. Childs had been released five days before the killing of Bowers on a burglary charge. Both men reportedly have criminal records.
The burglary of Bowers’ home netted the men $40 cash, an iPad and a laptop computer, according to the Baltimore Sun’s description of the crime:
“Police said Bowers was sexually assaulted in her home in the Westfield neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore and then strangled with an electrical cord.
“They said Dixon, 23, and Childs, 20, stole $40, an iPad and a laptop, and then set the home on fire.
…“Police said the men knew Bowers’ grandmother was working and Bowers was home alone. If the teen awoke, police said, Dixon planned to put her in a chokehold.
“The pair entered through a basement window, police said. Bowers awoke, police said, and Dixon dragged her into the basement while Childs ransacked the home, taking money from purses and a safe.
“According to police, Childs told detectives that Dixon and Bowers were in the basement for 30 minutes.
“Then Dixon came upstairs and said they needed to leave “because the house was on fire,” police said. Dixon told Childs the girl was dead, police said.
“Her body had been set on fire, as had her bed, dresser and a basement utility room, police said. They said a check of her phone showed calls between her phone and a phone belonging to Dixon hours before she was killed.
“Police said Childs confessed to the killing and burglary on Wednesday and implicated Dixon. Police arrested Dixon hours later.”