Left inset: Alexis Cancel-Soto (Baltimore Police). Right inset: Cameran Holt (Stallings Funeral Home). Background: The area in Baltimore, Md., where Alexis Cancel-Soto shot and killed Cameran Holt in October 2024 (WBAL/YouTUbe).
A Baltimore teen sitting on her car in a parking lot with friends, just hours after attending a candlelight vigil for a pal who died, was gunned down by a 19-year-old man after getting caught in the crossfire of a “shootout,” reports say.
Alexis Cancel-Soto, now 20, was found guilty Tuesday of first-degree murder for killing 19-year-old Cameran Holt on Oct. 27, 2024, during a late-night shooting in a parking lot on W. Hamburg Street in Fells Point, according to local NBC affiliate WBAL. Holt died two weeks later while in the hospital.
Cancel-Soto is one of three defendants who were charged for Holt”s death, with the other suspects currently awaiting trial. Tyreke Clark, 27, and Devontaye Richardson, 29, are also accused of opening fire that night after the confrontation began at around 2 a.m., cops said.
Holt was reportedly with friends after attending the vigil for a pal named “Chop” when the driver of a purple Dodge Challenger pulled up and got into an argument with Cancel-Soto and the others over parked cars, according to local CBS affiliate WJZ. The driver, who was never arrested, allegedly used an AR-15 to open fire.
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“I kinda-sorta felt like something bad was going to happen,” Cancel-Soto told jurors during his murder trial, according to the Baltimore Witness. “Like a shootout, or somebody was going to die,” he said.
Cancel-Soto and his lawyers argued self-defense during his trial and said he was under the impression that his life was in danger, so that’s why he opened fire. “I never shot toward Cameran Holt’s car,” Cancel-Soto said. “This would not have happened if it wasn’t for the driver of the Challenger.”
Prosecutors reportedly pointed to inconsistencies in Cancel-Soto’s statements to police and noted how he was caught during his interview saying, “We sold the gun,” after he insisted he never got rid of the firearm. They said if Cancel-Soto was truly in fear for his life, he would have run away and called for help.
Asked about the 9 mm handgun he used to kill Holt and whether he feels bad about bringing a weapon to the parking lot, Cancel-Soto said: “Almost everyone there had one.”
Cancel-Soto’s lawyers claimed, repeatedly, that he acted in self-defense before pulling the trigger. It took jurors around 10 hours to convict him.
“There is no evidence he fired the shot that hit and killed Ms. Holt,” Cancel-Soto’s lawyer argued. “They were friends. He’d never shoot at her car on purpose. No gun was ever recovered from him, and if you look at the video, you’ll see he’s scared and anxious. He even goes to the bathroom. He didn’t intend to kill anybody that night. He didn’t intend to fire his weapon that night.”
