Mark McKenzie has undergone repeated surgeries since he was shot while preparing soccer equipment outside his Baltimore County home.
TOWSON, Md. — Nearly two years after a gunshot turned an afternoon of preparing youth soccer equipment into a medical emergency, Mark McKenzie stood in a Baltimore County courtroom and described a recovery measured in intensive-care days, surgeries, pain and the games he never reached.
The hearing ended with a 25-year prison term for Kai Wilson, who was 15 when he shot McKenzie during an attempted robbery in Rodgers Forge on Sept. 13, 2024. Wilson, now 17, received a 40-year sentence with all but 25 years suspended for attempted second-degree murder and use of a handgun during a violent crime. Judge Robert Cahill Jr. also ordered five years of supervised probation after Wilson’s release. The judge went above an eight-to-15-year sentencing guideline range, citing the seriousness and planning involved.
For McKenzie, however, the sentencing followed a much longer timeline than the court case alone. He told the court that he spent 38 days in the intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital and underwent five surgeries and roughly 20 other procedures after the shooting. Other reporting documented 47 total days in the hospital, including 12 days on life support. He said his medical expenses had passed $500,000, and another surgery remained ahead later in 2026. That procedure was expected to require another two to three months of recovery.
McKenzie was 50 when officers found him wounded in an alley behind the 400 block of Dunkirk Road. He was not involved in a dispute or pursuing the teenagers, according to the evidence described in court. He had been cleaning out his vehicle and unloading soccer balls in preparation for a youth sporting event he was scheduled to coach the next day. Surveillance footage showed a masked Wilson approach him with a semiautomatic handgun fitted with a laser sight. Prosecutors said Wilson demanded money, struck McKenzie with the gun and shot him after a struggle began.
The shooting abruptly removed McKenzie from a role he had held in local youth sports for nearly two decades. At an earlier court hearing, he recalled that children he had coached learned through news reports, social media and other people that he had been shot. He missed the next day’s sporting event and the rest of that fall’s regular season. The detail became one of the clearest measures of how a brief encounter in an alley reached beyond the crime scene and into a network of young athletes and families who knew him as a coach.
That wider impact appeared quickly after the attack. Friends organized an online fundraiser as McKenzie remained hospitalized, and residents planned a community walk through Rodgers Forge. The walk was intended to support his family and reassure neighbors after violence in an area residents described as normally safe. By the time police announced arrests in October 2024, neighbors told local reporters the shooting had changed how they thought about their alleys, their children’s routines and security around their homes. Some residents added cameras after the attack.
McKenzie returned to that community impact at Wilson’s sentencing. Speaking directly to the teenager, he said, “You didn’t just attack a man. You attacked an entire community.” His statement also described the continuing physical cost. He said he lived with pain and still required treatment. The case therefore reached sentencing with a victim who had survived and resumed parts of his life but had not reached a clean medical endpoint. The next planned surgery meant the shooting would continue affecting his health long after the criminal case moved closer to its conclusion.
Police built the case through surveillance video from several locations. Cameras recorded the assault and captured a vehicle leaving Rodgers Forge. Investigators identified Wilson and Kamar Thompson, then 16, as suspects. Police said Thompson drove a stolen getaway vehicle. Additional video obtained during the investigation showed activity around that vehicle, including efforts to clean it with bleach, according to prosecutors. Authorities arrested both teenagers in October 2024 and charged them as adults with offenses connected to the shooting and attempted robbery.
The prosecution never had to present that evidence to a jury. In April 2026, shortly before jury selection was expected to begin, Wilson and Thompson entered Alford pleas. Under that form of plea, a defendant may maintain innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors possess evidence likely to result in a conviction. Courts treat the plea as a guilty plea for sentencing. Wilson’s plea covered attempted second-degree murder, while records and local reporting also described the gun offense considered at sentencing. Thompson entered pleas connected to the attempted robbery and firearm use.
Thompson was sentenced first and received 25 years in prison for his role as the getaway driver. Wilson faced Cahill in July. Assistant State’s Attorney Matt Darnbrough urged the judge to impose the maximum term allowed under the plea, emphasizing the shooting, the stolen vehicle and what prosecutors described as Wilson’s behavior after the attack. Darnbrough said surveillance footage showed Wilson laughing after McKenzie was shot. Cahill concluded the circumstances justified moving well above the normal guideline range and told Wilson that the facts of the case could hardly have been worse.
Wilson’s defense asked the court to consider a different history alongside the crime. Assistant Public Defender Donna D’Alessio said Wilson grew up amid instability, periods of homelessness, food insecurity and repeated exposure to gun violence. She said he had been shot at seven times between ages 11 and 15 and had struggled with mental health issues. Since his incarceration, she said, Wilson had taken classes toward completing high school and shown signs of rehabilitation. The defense argued that he could still change despite the gravity of the shooting.
Wilson did not speak at sentencing, leaving the competing accounts to his lawyer, prosecutors, the judge and McKenzie. D’Alessio said her client accepted responsibility and did not intend to fire during the robbery. Prosecutors countered that earlier juvenile interventions had not prevented the Rodgers Forge attack. Cahill ultimately placed greater weight on the seriousness of the crime and its planning when determining the prison term, though the suspended portion of the sentence and later probation leave rehabilitation as part of Wilson’s eventual return to the community.
McKenzie resisted reducing the outcome to a simple declaration that justice had been served. After court, he said sentencing decisions were outside his control and expressed gratitude for the prosecution while hoping those involved could move forward. He also spoke about the importance of youth activities and intervention before young people become involved in serious crime. His comments placed the final hearing in a broader frame: one teenager was going to prison for decades, while the man he shot was still preparing for more surgery and another long stretch of recovery.
Wilson is now serving the active 25-year portion of his sentence and is scheduled to face five years of supervised probation afterward. Thompson has also been sentenced to 25 years. McKenzie remains in recovery, with additional medical treatment expected. The courtroom judgment resolved the punishment for the shooting, but the victim’s medical history and the disruption to the Rodgers Forge community remain continuing consequences of what happened behind his home in September 2024.
Author note: Last updated August 21, 2026.