Baltimore man gets 25-year sentence for senior housing killing, shooting

Norman Waker’s 25-year prison term brings a measure of finality to a case that shook Pleasant View Gardens, the senior living facility on North Central Avenue where a 79-year-old man was killed and a 72-year-old man was left critically wounded.

Baltimore police said the shooting happened on Feb. 20, 2025, in the 100 block of North Central Avenue in the city’s Central District. Officers arrested Waker at the scene after SWAT teams searched the building apartment by apartment, and roads around the facility stayed closed for hours before reopening around 1 p.m. The victim who died was Clyde Barnes, and police said the other man survived his critical injuries. Pleasant View Gardens houses adults 62 and older, turning a residential building into the center of one of the city’s most disturbing recent violence cases.

Waker was charged with first-degree murder and related offenses. His case later ended in a mistrial in October 2025 after jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict. Jurors deliberated for roughly five to five-and-a-half hours after hearing about 10 hours of testimony. During the case, Waker claimed self-defense at a hearing and had waived his right to a speedy trial before the jury trial. Reports later identified him as a 66-year-old wheelchair user, while police initially listed him as 65 when he was arrested.

The sentence announced by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office orders Waker to serve 25 years of a 60-year sentence, with the first 10 years without parole. For residents and caretakers inside Pleasant View Gardens, the punishment closes a chapter marked by fear during the lockdown and search, when some residents were frightened as police cleared the building. A caretaker who knew Barnes called the killing tragic, and the prison term now stands as Baltimore’s formal answer to a shooting that struck inside a home for older adults, not on a street corner.