Butterflies rose and fell with the breeze Tuesday evening at the base of Annapolis City Dock, capping off a downtown remembrance one year after three men were killed in the Maryland capital’s bloodiest day in nearly half a decade. Together, fluttering along the waterfront, they were released by loved ones with the hope that maybe some of their grief would be released with them.
On June 11, 2023, Mario Mireles, 27, his father, Nicholas Mireles, 55, and Christian Segovia, 25, were shot and killed in between two front yards in southeast Annapolis. They were among a group of family and friends celebrating a birthday when an argument over parking turned the 1000 block of Paddington Place into a sprawling crime scene. Three others were shot, as well, but survived.
In the days after the shooting, federal and local investigators sealed off much of the community, which has since been commemorated to the Mireles family with a new sign off Edgewood Road. When the tape was torn down and the block became accessible again, bullet holes marked the sides of cars and houses; window glass from where one of the guns was fired coated a flower bed; and orange spray paint marking evidence dotted the sidewalks and street.
The shooter, Charles Robert Smith, 44, lived with his mother, Shirley, on Paddington Place, three doors from Mario Mireles. Over the years, the families had disagreements, court records show, climaxing last June when Shirley Smith complained about a luxury vehicle blocking her driveway. When Mario confronted her about it, the argument escalated, becoming physical and then deadly once her son got involved.
The bumper of a white Infiniti, the car Shirley Smith complained about, sat 17 inches over the entrance to the Smiths’ driveway.
Smith was arrested the night of the shooting and was indicted a month later on hate crime and first-degree murder charges — assertions Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess hopes to prove alongside prosecutor Jason Steinhardt. A hearing in circuit court is scheduled at the end of July, with a two-week trial set to begin Feb. 7.
On Tuesday, family, friends and mourners marched from the Maryland State House to Annapolis City Dock in honor of their loved ones. Together, on a makeshift, tented stage, they described their grief, in disbelief that a year has already gone by since their lives were changed forever.
Had postponements not taken place, Smith would have been in the middle of his trial Tuesday.
“It’s exhausting,” Judi Abundez, Mario Mireles’ widow, told The Capital. “We want justice.”
The shooting shocked the Annapolis community, which at that point had not experienced mass violence in nearly five years, when a gunman attacked the Capital Gazette’s newsroom and killed five journalists.
A week after the three men were killed, on Father’s Day, hundreds marched the same routecovered Tuesday — an especially bitter memorial, as both Mario Mireles and Segovia were expecting children when they died.
One year later, the impact the three men’s loss continues to have on their families was at the forefront of Tuesday’s ceremony.
Eric Velasquez Perez, Nicholas Mireles’ son, said he hopes to be the strong father figure for his eight siblings that Nicholas was for him. Holding a microphone, he was comforted by one of his sisters the first moment he became overcome with emotion. He embraced her, wrapping his arm around her head.
“I try to be strong for my siblings because sometimes it hurts,” Velasquez said. “Seeing them … not knowing that their father [isn’t] there, it hurts really bad.”
Mario Mireles and Christian Segovia were the first two people shot by Smith. Nicholas Mireles was shot in the head trying to run to his son’s side.
“He was trying to be an amazing father, but his life was taken,” Velasquez said. “He was just trying to help his son that was dying. Why? Why does he get killed for saving his son? Tell me that.”
A large crowd of friends, community members and leaders offered their support to the Mireles and Segovia families Tuesday.
Bryan Martinez met Mario Mireles in 2010, shortly after moving to Annapolis from Georgia. They became fast friends at Annapolis High School and it was at his house one day, when Segovia was working on Martinez’s car, that Mario and Segovia met.
As Martinez walked down Main Street on Tuesday, he pushed his baby in a stroller. He reminisced about his friends who, until their deaths, were in roughly the same place in life as he was; they grew up together and they raised their kids together.
“They’re all great people,” Martinez said.
Those who spoke Tuesday remembered the three men with passion and affection. But when they spoke of local leaders, officials who they met in droves last June, they spoke with frustration and disappointment.
Christian Segovia Sr. remembered meeting Gov. Wes Moore soon after his son’s death. He recalled telling the governor not to shake his hand if he wasn’t going to do anything to help the mourning families and their children. But Moore took Segovia’s hand that day, issuing a promise the father said has not yet been fulfilled.
“That’s a shame,” Segovia said. “But he can still make it up.”
Carter Elliott, the governor’s spokesman said later Tuesday night in a statement that the Moore-Miller administration has worked with the families to assist them in healing after “this horrific tragedy.”
“The Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy has been in regular contact with the families involved to help them through the process of applying for assistance and funds. The office also has several members who fluently speak Spanish to assist with any necessary translation,” Elliott said.
The spokesman said the state remains the payer of last resort for many of these expenses, and that victims have often expressed significant frustration with the timeliness and extent of services through the victims’ compensation system.
He said tragedies, like last June’s shooting, helped inspire two pieces of legislation introduced and signed by the governor this year: the Victim Compensation Reform Act, which will modernize Maryland’s victims’ compensation program, and the creation of the Center for Firearm Violence Prevention and Intervention, the state’s first statewide office of gun violence prevention.
“The Moore-Miller Administration will continue to work with the families involved to ensure that they are receiving the proper assistance they deserve, and the administration will continue to advocate for changes to a system that previously has left so many that have suffered from these tragedies frustrated,” Elliott said.
Segovia said he’s been able to rely on the community for support since last year’s shooting. The night of the attack, though he lives in Severn, he was contacted by Susy Cruz at St. Mary’s Church in Annapolis. All she wanted to know, Segovia said, was how the church could help. Since then, St. Mary’s has offered the family regular financial support, Segovia said.
Cruz did not immediately return a phone call after Tuesday’s event.
Segovia said Tuesday that he did not know how many friends he had, that any friend of his son’s was a friend of his.
While members of both families demanded more action from public officials, some attended Tuesday’s ceremony, including Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley and Maryland State Del. Shaneka Henson.
Buckley said last June’s shooting demonstrated that Annapolis was not simply “a place where everybody belongs to a yacht club,” but a “real city… a real urban area” with blends of people and a complex set of social issues. He said his administration is dedicated to combating hate, but that more needs to be done.
“If this city was a more inclusive place, what happened a year ago would never have happened,” Buckley said.
Julian Segovia, Christian Segovia’s brother, challenged the mayor’s remarks, saying “performative actions,” like displaying Pride and Juneteenth flags, “do not lead to material change.”
However, looking to the people in the crowd Tuesday, Julian Segovia said that what was needed for hope and help was demonstrated through them.
“This is what community looks like,” Julian Segovia said. “This is the important part of Annapolis. This is the important part of the state of Maryland.”
