Maurice Finney, 22, was shot in the head at close range with a .40-caliber handgun on July 17, 2017, at a gas station at Baltimore Street and Hilton Avenue. The killing occurred during an ongoing turf dispute between rival drug trafficking organizations; just days earlier, on July 14, a member of the Abington Avenue DTO had been killed by a rival group. Surveillance video captured the July 17 confrontation, and investigators say Finney was associated with the rival faction opposite the Abington Avenue group.

Authorities allege that Cortez Weaver and another Abington Avenue member went to the gas station that day to confront rivals. Weaver is reported to have confessed in a recorded conversation, with details that matched the surveillance footage and physical evidence, and to have instructed a co-conspirator to destroy evidence after the shooting. In February 2020 Weaver pleaded guilty to charges related to possessing, brandishing, and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime that resulted in Finney’s death and received a 30-year federal sentence followed by five years of supervised release.

Did anyone who knew Maurice or who lived near Baltimore Street and Hilton Avenue notice increased violence in July 2017 or see activity around that gas station?