Pubdate: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 Source: Tampa Tribune (FL) Copyright: 2002, The Tribune Co. Contact: http://www.tampatrib.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446 Author: Annie Gowen DRUG-FIGHTING MOM, 5 CHILDREN DIE IN FIRE Angela Dawson had been trying for months to keep the drug dealers off the steps of her East Baltimore rowhouse. She cursed them and badgered them down the block; they threw a rock through her window. She called police; somebody tossed two Molotov cocktails into her kitchen. The room was scorched, yet Dawson and her family refused to leave. Wednesday morning, though, somebody came at them again. According to police, one of the men who had repeatedly clashed with Dawson crept up her darkened street, intent on finishing the job. Within moments, a fireball ripped through the three-story structure, killing the 36-year-old mother and five of her six children. The youngest, twins, were 9. A 17-year-old daughter was not staying at home at the time of the fire. As firefighters and neighbors laid flowers at the remains of the rowhouse Thursday and Mayor Martin O'Malley called the violence "one of the most barbaric acts in our city's recent history," police charged Darrell Brooks, 21, with six counts of first-degree murder and arson. That count could grow. Dawson's husband, Carnell Dawson Sr., a 43-year-old construction worker, escaped through an open window, but barely. He remained in critical condition at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Thursday with second- and third-degree burns on more than half his body. The police department's conclusion confirmed what Angela Dawson's relatives and friends concluded immediately. They all knew of her battles this year, her efforts to shield her children and somehow hold the line in her decaying community. Between June and October, she had called 911 more than 50 times to report drug dealing. "Her life this year was pretty much a hell because of the drug dealers and hoodlums," said her brother, John Harrington Jr. of White Marsh, Md. "It became overwhelming. She got so she was afraid for her life." Dawson's mother, Donnell Golden, believes six lives could have been saved had police paid more attention to her daughter's complaints. The suspect, Brooks, lives across the street. - --- MAP posted-by: Alexandra Meyerson