Baltimore, MD: Census worker fatally shot in Southeast Baltimore

By Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun
Updated: 1:52 PM 6/14/2010
Multiple Page View
A U.S. Census worker was killed while dropping off a co-worker in Southeast Baltimore last week, according to police and the Census Bureau.
Spencer Williams, 22, was found shot June 7 inside his vehicle, which had pulled onto a median in the 1100 block of New Hope Circle, police said. He died Friday morning at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Williams was a crew leader responsible for a group of census takers who are doing follow-up visits at the homes of people who did not mail in their questionnaires by April, a Census Bureau spokeswoman confirmed. Malkia McLeod confirmed a Washington Post report that Williams was returning home after driving a co-worker home at the end of the day, and was considered to still be on the job.
Police and census officials said the shooting was not believed to be related to any census field work but was considered an on-the-job death. Officials were investigating the death as possibly domestic-related. Spencer did not have a criminal record.
Since the Census Bureau began making follow-up house calls in late April, workers across the country have been harmed or threatened 252 times, McLeod said. That includes 11 times when shots were fired at them, and 86 times when they were threatened with weapons such as guns, axes and crossbows.
Also, police said a man who was shot early Sunday in the 200 block of N. Rose St. has died. Police found Avon Beasley, 25, lying in a rear yard, suffering from a single gunshot wound to the torso about 2 a.m. He was transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:50 a.m.
Beasley had multiple drug convictions, most recently in 2007, and a handgun conviction. Police do not have a suspect or know of a motive in his killing.
justin.fenton@baltsun.com
twitter.com/justin_fenton