Priest Accused of Abuse Is Shot

BALTIMORE -- Authorities charged a man Tuesday with shooting a former Catholic parish priest who he claimed had molested him over a three-year period in the 1990s.

Dontee Stokes was arrested Monday night after allegedly shooting Father Maurice Blackwell several times, wounding him in the hand and near his left hip, police said.

Blackwell, 56, was listed in serious but stable condition Tuesday night at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Stokes was charged with attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault and handgun violations. His arraignment is scheduled for today.

Cardinal William Keeler, who led a meeting Tuesday of the archdiocese’s 175 priests to discuss the sexual abuse scandal, said: “I am appalled that another act of violence has occurred in the city of Baltimore, and that tragedy touches a person that I have known.”

Victims of sexual abuse by priests have gone public and taken legal action against their alleged molesters and the church, but until Monday none was known to have taken violent action against an accused priest.

Stokes, a 26-year-old barber, told police Monday night that Blackwell had inappropriately touched and fondled him over three years.

Stokes approached Blackwell in front of his house about 6 p.m. Monday, he told police. When the priest refused to speak with him, Stokes shot Blackwell several times, wounding him in the hand and near his left hip, police said.

The shooting took place in a rundown west side neighborhood, where the men live two blocks from each other.

According to police records and family members, Stokes first reported allegations of abuse in 1993, when he was 17.

Police and a special church commission had dropped their investigations of Stokes’ initial claim of abuse, and Blackwell was allowed to continue serving as pastor of St. Edward Catholic Church in west Baltimore until 1998.

“This is retaliation,” said Lionel Pauling, 39, who works at a nearby convenience store. “Dontee said the law didn’t do what they were supposed to.”

Nor did the church, Pauling and others said Tuesday.

Four years ago, after Blackwell confessed to having a sexual relationship with a teenage boy in 1974, before he was ordained, church officials removed him from St. Edward, a small, urban parish.

The church holds just two masses a week, both on Sunday, and on Tuesday the sanctuary was dark and empty except for a woman setting up for a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. At the rectory, a man who refused to give his name said the church would have no comment on the shooting, the allegations against Blackwell or his 19-year ministry at the church.

At Stokes’ home, which like Blackwell’s sits between two boarded-up row houses, family friend Tanya Bryant referred to the shooting as “a tragedy. But maybe now someone will listen.”

She described Stokes as “a wonderful father” and said Stokes and her cousin were engaged to be married in August, on their daughter’s second birthday.

For some, Stokes’ allegations and shooting of Blackwell only deepened their hurt and confusion about the doctrines and policies of their church.

“They say priests are married to God,” said Joseph Marine, a 27-year member of St. Edward who remembered Blackwell for the kind of preaching “you didn’t go to sleep on.”

“And they say God is male,” continued Marine, who is 89 years old. “So priests are married to a man? It is a difficult situation.”