Daquan Middleton, 16, Antwan Eldridge, 17 and Prince Greene, 15 are all being charged as adults for the murder of Robert Ponsi. Ponsi was killed in Waverly on Jan. 10. (Photos/Baltimore City Police)
On the evening of Jan. 9 Robert Ponsi, 29, a server in Harbor East’s James Joyce Pub was robbed and stabbed to death on his bicycle in the Waverly community. According to reports, officers were called at 9:10 p.m. and found Ponsi stabbed multiple times at the intersection of Venable Avenue and Old York Road. He was later pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Baltimore City Police identified and arrested two suspects in connection with the attack. Two teenagers, Daquan Middleton, 16, of Berea, and Antwan Eldridge, 17, of Ednor Gardens were charged with the crime on Jan. 11. Both males are being charged as adults with murder, armed robbery and assault, police said. Homicide detectives are also looking to identify any other suspects possibly involved in the attack and ask anyone with information to please contact Metro Crime Stoppers.
A third arrest was made on Jan. 11, after detectives executed a search and seizure warrant in the 600 block of E. 37th Street. They arrested Prince Greene, 15, of the same block. He has been charged as an adult with 1st degree and 2nd degree murder and related charges. He is currently being held at the Central Booking Intake Facility. Greene was a student at City College High School.
Middleton attended Nortwestern High School and Eldridge had a non-public school assignment.
Thomascine Greene, a well-known community activist in Waverly, is the mother of Prince Greene, who was arrested in connection with the murder of Ponsi. According to The Baltimore Sun, Greene’s mother was recently at a neighborhood association meeting pleading for more resources.
“Every community meeting that we have, I’m talking about the youth,” she said. “With God as my witness, I said, ‘You’re going to wait until somebody gets killed, and have a community center in his name. Let’s not wait. We have to do something for these kids,’” Greene told the Sun. Greene did not respond to a request for comment.
Correction Feb. 2, 2016: An earlier version of this story stated that Middleton and Eldridge attended Renaissance Academy High School, an institution which saw several violent incidents last year. Neither Middleton nor Eldrige attended Renaissance.