Community Event Set in Aftermath of Long Reach Stabbing

The public is invited to an event Friday at to discuss safety in the neighborhood in light of the fatal stabbing of

Howard County Councilman Calvin Ball is organizing the event, which starts at 6 p.m. and will include members from the Howard County Police Department.

“We’re going to invite folks out [so] we can ensure everyone has accurate information and can begin the process of healing in the community," Ball told Patch Wednesday night, Aug. 3.

Hall was stabbed multiple times while in his home on the 8700 block of Airybrink Lane at about 10 p.m. July 27, according to Howard County Police.

Long Reach High School junior Xavier Trevon Bates, 18, of 9089 Lambskin Lane in Columbia, is charged with first- and second-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault, in the stabbing, according to a press release.

Police said they believed Hall and Bates were involved in a fight earlier int the day and that Bates had come to Hall’s home to fight him again, forcing himself into Hall’s apartment, where he stabbed Hall several times before fleeing on his bicycle.

Howard County police have said the fight was not gang or drug-related.

Hall had attended Reservoir High School until March of 2009, according to school officials, before transferring to New Visions Academy in Baltimore--a private school for "male students who have been unable to succeed in the public school system," according to the school website.

According to the assistant pastor at St. John Baptist Church, Hall was also in the church’s Man-to-Man mentoring program, which matches at-risk students with mentors as role models.