Suspect Charged In 3 Killings, Including 2 Children

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A young man has now been charged in connection with three killings in Baltimore, two of them children. Police had linked him to all three deaths but only recently had enough evidence to charge him.

Mike Hellgren has the missing pieces that led them to those charges.

According to the charging documents WJZ obtained, witnesses--some of them reluctant--and cartridge casings from a gun tie into two of the murders.

For days, police canvassed the city in an all-out manhunt to find 20-year-old Kevin Simpson, known on the street as KJ.

Now he's behind bars and charged in connection with three killings over a four-day span late last month, including that of 15-year-old Oscar Torres, whose brother Julio believes more people may be involved.

He did not want to show his face.

"I know he's involved in it. He had the car that my brother was in. He had something to do with it; he knows who did it. He knows who sent them," Julio said.

The crime spree started May 24, when police say Simpson gunned down 27-year-old Martel Jackson at a gas station. Surveillance images showed the two together just before the killing.

Detectives found one shell casing at the scene and were able to link it to casings found where Torres was killed days later.

"We can't allow him to take the life of another person in this city. We can't allow him to bring any more harm to anyone in this city," said Lt. Eric Kowalczyk, Baltimore City Police.

Simpson's address is listed as Harmison Street, just a short walk from where Torres was murdered and the gas station where Jackson was killed.

Police confirm Simpson stole a car at the scene of the Torres killing and the next day--while fleeing from undercover cops in that car--he slammed into a minivan, killing sixth grade honor student Shanizya Taft.

"He robbed me of my child. She was only 12," said Taft's mother, Shanell Pryor.

A judge denied bail for Simpson after his arrest in the death of Shanizya Taft.

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