Gregory Parker

Gregory Parker, 22, was killed in Baltimore after a street fight in East Baltimore set off a chain of payback that hardened into a contract. In the days after the fight near West Patterson Park Avenue and Chase Street, a person connected to the dispute was handed a “contract” to have Parker murdered and lined up Tavon Slowe to make it happen for $5,000.

On the afternoon of March 16, 2012, the plan moved from talk to action. Slowe drove his silver Honda Accord to meet the person who was steering the hit, and Davon Sanford sat in the front passenger seat. The person pointed them toward Parker and even described what he was wearing—a blue floppy, “Gilligan-style” hat—so there would be no mistake. Less than 90 minutes later, Parker was on the 2300 block of East Chase Street when Sanford opened fire with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol. Fourteen shell casings were left behind, the kind of detail that makes a scene feel both chaotic and chillingly methodical.

Witnesses and cameras helped fill in the seconds after the shots. Investigators said the shooter ran north on Bradford Street and climbed into a waiting silver vehicle—surveillance captured Sanford fleeing and getting into the Honda driven by Slowe. Photos later recovered by law enforcement matched Sanford to the clothing seen in the footage, including a green hooded sweatshirt with white lettering across the front.

The case didn’t stop at the trigger pull. Federal investigators later described how, in 2013, a jailed caller—working at the direction of the FBI—reached back out to Slowe and tried to draw him into another murder-for-hire plot, with talk of payment, guns, and logistics. An undercover officer met with Slowe as part of the operation, but when a final meeting was set up to hand over guns and money and take him into custody, Slowe didn’t show. Later that year, Baltimore Police arrested him on drug and gun charges, and the broader murder-for-hire investigation continued to tighten around the people involved.

Ultimately, the killing of Gregory Parker led to major federal prison sentences for the two men identified as central players in the hit. Sanford, described as the shooter and also known as “Chronic,” pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death and was sentenced to 30 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release. Slowe was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison followed by supervised release for charges arising from two murder-for-hire schemes, with the Parker killing at the center of the first.