Danyae Conyers, 23, died on Thursday, March 18, 2021, nearly five years after he was found wounded in the 500 block of Normandy Avenue in southwest Baltimore. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists his death as a homicide, dated March 22, 2021, when detectives were told of the ruling. The database records the cause as blunt force, although police and news reports said he died of complications from being shot in 2016.
According to police accounts reported by CBS Baltimore, the Baltimore Sun and WMAR, Conyers was 19 years old when he was found "lying in the middle of the street" on Friday, May 27, 2016, "with gunshot wounds to his body." He was taken to Shock Trauma, where doctors found he was paralyzed from the neck down. The Sun reported that he was listed in critical condition at the time.
For almost five years he lived with those injuries. On March 18, 2021, he was taken to St.
Agnes Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The medical examiner ruled that his death was a homicide caused by complications from the 2016 shooting, which meant that a case that had been investigated as a nonfatal shooting became a homicide investigation. CBS Baltimore reported that homicide detectives were investigating and asked anyone with information to call 410-396-2100.
Little else about the case has been made public. Police have not said what led to the shooting, whether Conyers knew the person who shot him, whether anyone saw it happen, or whether a suspect was ever identified in the years between the attack and his death. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be verified for this story, so almost nothing about his life before or after he was hurt has entered the public record. Living with paralysis from the neck down for nearly five years suggests he relied heavily on others for care, but the people who looked after him have not spoken publicly.
His name was remembered alongside others lost that spring. Conyers was among the victims read aloud by name on WYPR's Midday program in "Names of Baltimore's Fallen," and he was listed in the bulletin for "A Vigil for Unity & Hope," a service held on April 22, 2021, by the Presbytery of Baltimore. Catholic Review also listed him among the victims for whom readers were asked to pray by name.
Normandy Avenue is a residential street in southwest Baltimore, the part of the city where police said the 2016 shooting took place. The block was a place where people lived and walked every day, and someone there may remember that afternoon.
After the unrest of 2015, Baltimore recorded more than 300 homicides a year for eight straight years, and the share of killings that ended in an arrest fell sharply.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Danyae Conyers could be found in news archives or public records. More than five years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near the 500 block of Normandy Avenue on the afternoon of May 27, 2016, or who heard talk afterward about who shot a 19-year-old there, may know something that could help. A case this old can still turn on one person deciding to speak. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
