Tayvon Scott

On the afternoon of March 2, 2022, Tayvon Scott, a 43-year-old man, was sitting in his minivan outside his home in a quiet Dundalk, Maryland, neighborhood. At around 2:30 p.m., another vehicle pulled up, and two people inside opened fire with a .223 rifle and a .45 handgun, shattering the minivan’s windows. Neighbors in the 1900 block of Ewald Avenue heard as many as eight gunshots ring out, sounds so loud they were audible blocks away.

Police arrived to find Scott slumped in his vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds to his back, chest, arms, and legs. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries the next day, March 3. The shooting stunned the community, prompting a nearby elementary school to go into lockdown. Investigators would later determine that Scott had no connection to his killers. For more than two years, however, the investigation continued with no publicly announced suspects or arrests, leaving his family and community without answers.

A major breakthrough came in October 2024, when the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office announced that a grand jury had indicted two men, Keith Brian Russell and Cornell Moore. The indictment charged them with participating in a violent, murder-for-hire enterprise that had been operating in and around Baltimore since at least 2020. The indictment named Tayvon Scott as one of seven people murdered by the organization. Authorities alleged the men used stolen and carjacked vehicles to carry out their crimes, including the Nissan Rogue used in the attack on Scott, which had been taken at gunpoint in Washington, D.C., a month earlier.

Following the indictment, Keith Brian Russell was tried in Baltimore County for his role in the killing. In March 2026, a jury found him guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 45 years.