Howard County Police Chief William McMahon is scheduled to meet with Oakland Mills residents on Tuesday to discuss the two back-to-back shootings ‹ one of which was fatal ‹ that occurred in the Columbia village this weekend.

The meeting is slated for 6:30 p.m. May 20 in the loft of The Other Barn, in the Oakland Mills Village Center, at 5851 Robert Oliver Place.

In the first incident, Jason Batts, 23, of the 6200 block of Painted Yellow Gate, of Long Reach, in Columbia, was shot to death at 2:50 a.m. May 17 in the parking lot of the Stevens Forest Apartments, in the 5800 block of Stevens Forest Road, near the Oakland Mills Village Center, according to police.

Batts was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Officials released no further information about the incident.

The shooting was followed roughly 22 hours later, at 1:12 a.m. May 18, by a shooting in the 5800 block of Thunder Hill Road, near the Shadow Oaks apartment complex in Oakland Mills.

In that incident, Wayne Ronald Hamblin, 24, of the 5900 block of Harpers Farm Road, in Harper's Choice, was shot in the shoulder during a fight between two groups of people, police said.

Hamblin was transported to The University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center May 18, where he was treated and released, according to police.

Witnesses reported that they saw a group of people running into an apartment in the Shadow Oaks complex following the shooting, police said.

Officers attempted to gain access to the apartment but were denied, said Sherry Llewellyn, a police spokeswoman. Police evacuated the neighboring apartments, taking the residents to a nearby police satellite office.

Police ultimately gained access to the apartment that the witnesses had described, questioned several of the occupants and took others in for questioning, Llewellyn said.

Police had not charged anyone in either shooting as of May 19, Llewellyn said.

The community is anxious to learn more about the shootings, Oakland Mills Village Manager Sandy Cederbaum said May 19.

"As a community we're very concerned and we want to .. find out happened," she said. "We don't want Oakland Mills to be a place where anyone thinks they can get away with anything." McMahon as not immediately available for comment May 19.

Two days after Betts' killing in the Stevens Forest Apartments, several people there appeared afraid to speak about the incident.

One, a male teenager, said he had heard about the shooting but refused to give his name to a reporter.

When the reporter pointed to the place where the shooting occurred, the teenager admonished the reporter not to point to the place while standing with him, as if he did not want possible onlookers to know he was talking about the shooting.

Several other people also refused to speak about the incident.

Jernine Nanle, 23, did speak.

He said he was awoken by two gun shots, after which he went out to the parking lot, where he saw a girl and two males conversing.

One of the males was visibly upset and repeatedly said, "It could've been me," Nanle said, adding that he and his father were tired of the crime in the complex and were planning to leave it as soon as possible.

At Shadow Oaks, resident Robert Kirksey said he wanted police to increase patrols in the neighborhood.

He added that the recent spate of crime in Oakland Mills was not what Columbia's founder James Rouse would have wanted for the planned community.

"I don't think this is what Jim Rouse had in mind," Kirksey said.

Members of Batts' family could not be reached for comment.

E-mail Mike Santa Rita at msantarita@patuxent.com.

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