Three Charged with Attempted Murder, Kidnapping of Baltimore County Teen

Police have charged a Reisterstown woman and two others with attempted murder and kidnapping in connection with the shooting of a Baltimore County teen in June.

The trio were arrested at the same Highmeadow Road home were police were forced to shoot a sword-wielding man late Thursday night.

Laura Christian Karr, 24, of the 400 block of Highmeadow Road in Reisterstown, Donald George Peoples Jr., 21, of the 4200 block of Saint Georges Avenue in Baltimore and Chiquita Sketers, 21, of the 3400 block of Carriage Hill Circle in Randallstown were charged Friday with attempted first- and second-degree murder, kidnapping, first- and second-degree assault and gun changes, according to a Howard County Police news release.

Peoples and Karr were arrested overnight during an execution of a Howard County Police warrant that was carried out by Baltimore County Police in Reisterstown at Karr’s home.

Ronald Melvin Cox Jr., 48, was during the execution after he swung a large sword at an officer, the news release said.

Cox was not a suspect in the attempted murder, according to Howard County Police spokesperson Sherry Llewellyn.

Sketers was arrested Friday around 2 p.m. at her home.

The three are charged in connection with the June 19 shooting of Sterling Watts, a 15-year-old Reisterstown resident. He was found in Marriottsville with a gunshot to the back of the head. Watts was released from the hospital on July 11, according to the news release.

Police believe Peoples and Karr kidnapped Watts as he was walking around his neighborhood and forced him into a car. They then stopped in Randallstown to pick up Sketers, who brought a long barrel rifle, loaded it with ammunition and told Watts he was going to die. They drove Watts to a field and ordered him out of the car at gunpoint. Police believe that Peoples shot him in the back of the head as he walked away.

Police were able to identify Peoples and Karr as suspects, and found out that Karr’s 2012 Mazda was used in the kidnapping. Suspects matching their descriptions had been seen driving a silver car through Watts' neighborhood selling illegal drugs. Police learned that two people matching their descriptions, descibed as a drug dealer and his girlfriend, were robbed by an unknown suspect the day of the shooting. Additional investigation led police to Sketers.

Peoples and Karr are being held in the Howard County Detention Center and Sketers was to be taken there Friday afternoon, police said.