Final Defendant Pleads Guilty in Deadly 2024 Essex Apartment Shootout

ESSEX—The final defendant pleaded guilty Wednesday in a deadly daytime shootout involving at least six men, in which four people were shot and two died.

David “Chuckie” Davis, 30, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault for shooting Brian White in the foot as White began to drive away from an apartment complex in the 900 block of Bayner Court in Essex on Nov. 9, 2024.

Davis had just witnessed his cousin, Desmond Dorsey, 35, being shot and killed and his brother, Gerald “Boobie” Day, 36, being shot in the leg. Davis told Judge Andrew Battista he was trying to defend his family members and end the gunfight.

A disagreement over a parking space between Dorsey and Davon “DJ” Pittman escalated into a physical fight and then a gunfight between two groups. Video shows dozens of gunshots being fired in the apartment parking lot, with bullets flying back and forth and some striking apartments and cars, in a scene Judge Battista likened to the “O.K. Corral.” Prosecutors said Davis alone fired roughly 13 shots.

“It was a heated situation,” Davis told the judge. “The argument was over a parking spot, to my knowledge. I didn’t want it to go no further. It was supposed to be just a fight. After that, it was supposed to be over with. I just wanted everybody to leave and retreat from the scene.”

Desmond Dorsey, 36, died from multiple gunshot wounds in the parking lot. The man who allegedly shot him, Brandon Coker, 38, also suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was treated at a local hospital. Coker was indicted on a first-degree murder charge in Dorsey’s death but later died in the Baltimore County Department of Corrections from his wounds on Jan. 28, 2025, Assistant State’s Attorney Patrick Brooks said.

“There was an argument that led to one neighbor, Davon Pittman, bringing Brian White and Brandon Coker to the complex for a fight against another neighbor,” Brooks said. “Desmond Dorsey brought Gerald Day and this defendant, David Davis, for that fight. Both crews were present that Saturday afternoon and brought guns to this fistfight.”

Davis’ attorney, Jan Bledsoe, said Davis did not come to the complex looking for a fight. She said he was already there visiting family and watched the fight from behind a tree. Davis ran inside his brother’s apartment and retrieved a gun only after his family members were shot, she said.

Brian White and Gerald Day both pleaded guilty last year to possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and were each sentenced to 15 years in prison. Brooks said investigators believe both men were acting in defense of others.

“They were shooting at the same time their family members were being shot at,” Brooks said.

Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Davis to 25 years in prison, with all but 15 years suspended and the first five years without the possibility of parole. The defense requested five to seven years. Judge Battista ultimately sentenced Davis, who has no history of violent crime, to nine years of active prison time.

“I don’t even know if it would be possible to count how many bullets were fired in this gunfight,” Judge Battista said. “Lots of people had weapons, and lots of people were shooting at lots of people. This strikes me more as a hot-blooded incident than self-defense.”

Coker, who died while incarcerated from gunshot wounds suffered in this incident, had previously been convicted of attempted murder for shooting 17-year-old Tyrone Wright in Baltimore City in February 2011 and was sentenced to 12 years active prison time, according to court records. The shooting left Wright paralyzed. Wright died June 8, 2025. His death was ruled a homicide related to the 2011 shooting. Coker likely would have faced murder charges had he survived.