3 Students, 1 Man Charged In Arundel Firebombing

A group of Anne Arundel County high school students and a 22-year-old man, all allegedly linked to a gang, have been arrested on charges of firebombing a home in Odenton in retaliation for the killing last month of a 14-year-old boy, police said.

Three people were inside the home when it was set ablaze by a molotov cocktail about 3 a.m. June 3, police said. Among them was a teenager the group mistakenly blamed in the May 30 death of Christopher Jones in Crofton, police said. The blaze caused an estimated $1,500 in damage but no injuries.

Christopher died after he was struck in the head by two boys while riding his bike near his home, police have said.

Police said three of those arrested in the firebombing -- two 16-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy, all charged as juveniles -- were linked to The New Threat, a high school gang. Christopher's mother has said some of his elementary school friends were members of the group. She has denied that he was a member.

Christopher was with friends from The New Threat when the group was involved in an altercation with the East Side Diamonds in Odenton Mall this spring. His mother said she had him transferred from Arundel High School to South River High School after the mall incident, in which he was threatened by a member of the East Side Diamonds.

Police have charged a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old in Christopher's death but have not identified the two as gang members. Police have said they are investigating whether the slaying stemmed from a dispute between the two gangs.

Police said the 22-year-old suspect arrested Tuesday -- Jonathan R. Myers of the 1100 block of Soho Court in Crofton -- is also an associate of TNT and a self-described member of Dead Man Incorporated, a fast-growing gang in Maryland prisons.

Myers is scheduled to be tried next month on charges of attempted murder and assault in an incident in August. His attorney did not return a call seeking comment yesterday.

The four suspects in the firebombing are charged with first-degree arson, malicious burning, conspiracy to commit arson and three counts of reckless endangerment, one for each of the three people in the house at the time of the attack.

The apparent round of retaliatory violence shocked residents in the District's bucolic suburbs in Anne Arundel and prompted police and County Executive John R. Leopold (R) yesterday to acknowledge that the county is grappling with a gang problem it hadn't been fully aware of before Christopher's death.

"We owe the citizens complete honesty if we feel that there's gang activity," Leopold said, "and that's the case here."

Police Chief James Teare said county police have been aware that some residents identify themselves as gang members, but they had not heard about the gangs under investigation in connection with Christopher's death.

"Because of the small number of incidents and small number of people associated with TNT and ESD, they did not come up to the administration in the police department," Teare said. "It was only after the Christopher Jones homicide where we realized the numbers, the magnitude and where the criminal activity was occurring."

Teare said that county police are working on a census of gangs and gang members in the county and taking any group seriously.

"Before, we called them by different names, maybe a crew, a set, a clique; it is still a gang. If you have three or more people that join together under a common name or symbol or sign . . . I'm going to call them a gang so the people of Anne Arundel County understand that we're taking it serious."