After Devin “Devon” O’Brian Dixon was shot trying to rob a drug dealer in 2005, Nathaniel Quick came to his aid, driving his friend to the hospital in critical condition.

“He took him to the emergency room,” recalled Celestine Howard, Quick’s grandmother. “That was years ago. He hadn’t seen Devon for years.”

Over the weekend, according to county police, Dixon fired 21 bullets at a west Columbia house where a crowded Halloween party was in progress, striking and killing Aaron Brice, 19, of Silver Spring.

One of the bullets also hit Quick — paralyzing the young man who helped save Dixon four years earlier.

It wasn’t the first time police have accused Dixon, 22, of carrying a gun in quiet Howard County. It also wasn’t the first time Dixon has been charged with committing a crime against one of his friends.

But the Nov. 1 shooting in the 11500 block of Manorstone Lane was the most violent and serious of a series of charges against Dixon that include four separate convictions and three separate felony indictments.

Most recently, in late 2007, Dixon was sent away to prison on a three-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Had he not been released early for good behavior, he still would have been in prison at the time of the shooting.

“Can they get guns so fast?” Howard asked. “It’s unfortunate. I feel bad for the young man who died.

“I feel so sorry for them,” Howard added of Brice’s family. “They had to bury their child.”

Victim ‘a quiet child’

A Howard High graduate who is majoring in finance and business at Bowie State, Quick, 22, set off for the party on Halloween night with a friend, Howard said.

“He is a quiet child,” said his grandmother, who raised him. “He never causes trouble. I knew he was going to the party and I told him, ‘Be safe, Nathaniel.’ ”

But things turned ugly at the party. Police said an argument broke out, and, the next thing Quick knew, he heard gunfire and felt a pain in the back.

“All he knows is he got hit in the back,” Howard said. “He didn’t see Devon there. I don’t why Devon was there or what his problem was. To be shooting people outside? That’s a mystery to me.”

Howard said police told her that the bullet that struck her grandson ricocheted off a window and was not intended for Quick.

“He’s hanging in there,” she said of her grandson, whom she has visited every day at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. “He’s paralyzed from the waist down. He knows it, but it hasn’t really hit him.

“He used to walk every day. He loves to walk. He just bought two new pairs of sneakers. Now he says, ‘Grandma, I don’t have any legs. Grandma, my legs.’ ”

Howard said Dixon came to visit her shortly after the shooting. Upon learning that Quick was paralyzed, he looked distraught, she said.

“He asked, ‘How was Nathaniel,’ and I said, ‘Well, he’s paralyzed from the waist down.’ He just walked out, like he was so in pain or hurt,” Howard said.

Long criminal record

Dixon’s adult criminal record began only days after he became an adult. Less than one month after his 18th birthday, a Howard County police SWAT team was raiding his former residence in Columbia — the first of two times the tactical unit would be called to deal with Dixon.

In February of 2005, Howard County police suspected Dixon of being “in possession of a handgun,” and obtained a search warrant for his home in the 8800 block of Hayshed Lane, according to an investigation done by officers James Iacarino and Brian Tanhauser.
On Feb. 11, 2005, at 5:30 a.m., tactical officers rammed in the front door of the home, damaging the lock, and searched Dixon’s bedroom.

There, officers found 63 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition, a jar with marijuana residue and bags used for packaging drugs, police said. Dixon was charged with marijuana possession and struck a plea deal for probation later that year.

A few months later, Dixon was shot while attempting to rob a drug dealer working out of a barbershop.

On July 17, 2005, according to police, Dixon and another man entered the Barber King salon in the Long Reach Village Center  at 1 a.m. and attempted the robbery. Gunfire broke out and an unarmed Dixon was struck by a bullet. He was rushed to Howard County General Hospital by Quick, whom police described as a “friend.”

Dixon was sentenced to 110 days, after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery.

Drug charges initially filed against Quick were dismissed because of insufficient evidence, said Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Out of jail, back in trouble

After serving several months in jail, Dixon was released and, court records show, went back to committing crimes.

On Aug. 20, 2006, he beat and robbed a man outside his Hayshed Lane house, causing the SWAT team to engage him in a “standoff,” according to police.

The victim in the case told police he was robbed by two suspects who struck him from behind and stole his cell phone. When the two ran into Dixon’s home, police used a tactical unit to “peacefully” talk them into surrendering, according to court records.

After a search of the house, police said they found empty gel capsules and other evidence of drug distribution.

“Dixon admitted to his involvement in the robbery,” wrote Cpl. Justin Baker in charging documents. “Dixon also admitted the pills and powder … was ecstasy. Dixon advised he had not sold (drugs) for a long period of time.”

He pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm and was sentenced to three years in prison Aug. 28, 2007.

Before that sentencing, Dixon, who was out on bail, was charged with yet another crime.

On April 12, 2007, he was accused of burglarizing his friend’s house in the 8500 block of Winter Pasture Way, in Columbia. Dixon was friends with the family’s son, but that didn’t stop him from sneaking inside the house to steal the family’s PlayStation 3 video game system, according to charging documents.

On Dec. 12, 2007, Dixon was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to misdemeanor theft in the case.

Johns Hopkins criminologist Doug Ward said cases such as Dixon’s — which show escalating criminal behavior with no rehabilitation — present a problem for law enforcement all over the country.

“This is a big problem everywhere,” he said. “We call it a criminal justice system, but it’s not much of a system. There are competing interests here. You have police officers who are trying to build good cases …. and you have a so-called correctional system, where part of the goal is to keep them in prison and part is to get them out as quickly as possible to free up beds.”

Ward said oftentimes parole and probation agents — who are supposed to keep a close eye on newly released inmates — are too overwhelmed by large workloads to do an effective job of monitoring ex-cons.

“Parole and probation agents are supposed to keep watch over them,” he said. “In a lot of cases, it doesn’t happen, and this is one of them.”

Calls to Dixon’s residence, and the office of his former attorney, Ivan Bates, went unreturned.

Dixon, who now lives at the 8000 block of Paul Martin Drive, in Elkridge, is being held without bond at the Howard County Detention Center.

Dean Schroyer, 21, who lives with Dixon, is charged as an accessory to the murder after the fact and with a drug violation, according to police. Schroyer has been released on $50,000 bond. He has no previous criminal record.

Dixon has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Dec. 1 in Howard County District Court.

The home where two men were shot early Sunday morning. The Forest Glen development in which the house sits is a relatively wealthy, secluded area. (Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna / November 1, 2009)

Howard County police on Monday morning announced the arrests of two Elkridge men in the shooting death of a Silver Spring man during a Halloween party over the weekend at a million-dollar brick home in Columbia.

Devin “Devon” O’Brian Dixon, 22, was charged with the murder of Aaron T. Brice, 19, and the attempted murder of Nathaniel Quick, 22, who may be paralyzed as a result of his injury, police said. Dean Schroyer, 21, was charged as an accessory to the murder after the fact and a drug violation, according to police.

Gunfire erupted early Sunday at the 4,600-square-foot home on Manorstone Lane that police said had been rented out for the party. The victims were not residents of the home, which sits on two acres of land near a golf course in a neighborhood usually untouched by crime.

Police said Brice was shot on the driveway of the house and declared dead at the scene — becoming the second homicide victim in the suburban county this year. Quick was sent to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in critical condition, but the Columbia resident was expected to survive. Two more partygoers with injuries that authorities said did not appear to be related to the shooting were sent to Howard County General Hospital.

Witnesses told police that Dixon was the shooter and Schroyer drove the car in which Dixon fled. Warrants were served at the home in the 8000 block of Paul Martin Drive where the suspects live, and police seized a handgun that they believe might have been used in the shooting, along with approximately 3 pounds of marijuana.

Dixon, who was also charged with assault, was being held without bail at the Howard County Detention Center. Schroyer was also at the detention center, being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Brice and Quick were among at least 100 young adults who flocked to the party, after word of the event spread through social networking Web sites. Police could not say who organized the party, or allowed it to take place.

Anthony Brice, father of the slain teenager, said his son went with a group from Montgomery County. Brice knew something was wrong when he didn’t hear from his son by his curfew. But it wasn’t until one of those friends called hours later, distraught, that he discovered what had happened. He rushed to the scene looking for more information, but found little.

“It’s unbelievable. I’m thinking it’s a bad dream,” said Brice, 48.

He said his son, who lived at the family’s Silver Spring home, was a grocery-store cashier who worked at a Christian day camp over the summer. He planned to attend Montgomery College in January to study criminal justice. Brice was told his son was shot just as he was leaving the party “because he saw the situation was not good.”

“Crime can be anywhere,” Brice said, adding that kids need to know that just because they’re “going to a million-dollar neighborhood doesn’t mean it’s safe.”

Celestine Howard, Quick’s grandmother, said he was shot in the spine. Quick is a student at Bowie State University, and Howard said he attended the party with a friend who had heard about the event through a social networking Web site.

When police arrived at the home about 1:15 a.m., more than 100 young people were still at the party. Officers said the house was the location of another loud party in June that prompted at least one phone call to 911.

“This summer, there was a similar cadre of cars up and down the street,” said neighbor Rob Weiss, who has lived on the street for a year and a half. “And there were a lot of kids running around, screaming and yelling, pushing and shoving.”

Joanne Powell, listed in land records as the owner of the Columbia house with Dennis Edwards, filed for bankruptcy protection in January. Both owners were facing foreclosure proceedings until the case was dismissed in August. They could not be reached by telephone for a comment, and no one answered the door Sunday afternoon. The house was purchased for $1.6 million three years ago.

Blood stained the driveway less than a dozen feet from the front steps of the house. Signs of damage were visible inside, including a bashed-in staircase.

“What we know from witnesses is there was some kind of ongoing altercation throughout the evening,” Howard County police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said Sunday. “What we don’t know yet is whether that altercation started before the party began. We don’t know what the motive was or what the argument was about.”

Llewellyn said police have no reason to think the shooting was related to gangs or drugs. Neighbors didn’t know what to make of the ruckus.

“We thought it was firecrackers. Then we heard the screams,” said Teri Deuel, who lives behind the house on a neighboring street. “It took us about a half-hour to figure out that somebody got shot.”

Bans Sandhu, who lives nearby, said he heard multiple shots ring out.

“I don’t know how many, but a full magazine,” he said. “Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.”

Neighbor Fadeke Iluyomade, 51, was working in her study when she heard what sounded to her like fireworks, except louder. “Then suddenly there were a lot of people running, running away from the house. Some were running on my lawn,” she said. “That was when I called the police because I didn’t know what was going on.”

Police said they received a dozen calls in all.

Officers interviewed dozens of potential witnesses into Sunday morning, and shut down Route 108 near the Manorstone Lane intersection for hours as they investigated. The first Howard homicide took place in August, when police said an assisted-living-facility patient suffering from dementia beat a fellow resident to death.

The scene evoked memories of a 2005 incident in Anne Arundel County, where two National Football League teams rented a mansion in a residential neighborhood in Gambrills for a 400-guest party that ended in a non-fatal shooting. Neighbors of the property had earlier complained that the owners of the house were running an unauthorized nightclub where admission was charged. A judge issued an injunction preventing additional events.

Deuel, the neighbor to the rear, said she wished she had called police earlier in the evening when music from the overly boisterous party made her house pulsate.

She didn’t call then, she said, because “we were nice neighbors.” But now, she thinks, if she hadn’t been so nice, police might have broken the party up — “and it wouldn’t have gotten out of control.”

Howard County police are investigating a shooting at a crowded Halloween party in Columbia early Sunday that left one man dead and another in critical condition.

Several partygoers at the residence, in the 11500 bock Manorstone Lane, called police at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday to report that shots had been fired.

Police said Aaron Thomas Brice, 19, of Silver Spring, was found dead in the driveway of the residence. Nathaniel Quick, 22, of Columbia, was found alive in the basement and was transported to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, in Baltimore, where he is listed in critical condition. Sherry Llewellyn, a police spokeswoman, said Sunday that Quick is expected to live but may be paralyzed.

Police are offering rewards of up to $5,000 to those with information about the homicide.

Llewellyn said the shooting was the culmination of an argument that had been brewing all evening. She also said the shooting was the second time since June that police had been called to the residence.

Partygoers had rented the residence for the night for the Halloween party, Llewellyn said. Witnesses said that multiple shots were fired in the party that drew more than 100 people, and Llewellyn said that a massive police turnout was necessary to preserve evidence and interview those at the scene.

Two other males from the party were taken to Howard County General Hospital with injuries from an altercation that occurred at about the same time, but Llewellyn declined to give out their names because of their status as witnesses.

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