The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

The chapter begins with Mary Moore watching the news about a robbery led by four masked men at a jewelry store. The masked men held customers and police at gunpoint then stole $438,000 worth of watches and jewels. They nearly got away without anyone getting hurt, but a police sergeant who ran after them shortly after they left the jewelry store was shot three times at point-blank range. While Mary was watching the news coverage, the last two suspects’ photos appeared on-screen. The pictured men were described as likely being “armed and dangerous” (149). They were her sons, Tony and Wes.

Though the robbery occurred outside Baltimore City, “crime in Baltimore and its suburbs [was spiraling] out of control” (148), and the police were especially troubled by the death of Sergeant Prothero. On a lead, the police searched a house and found a stolen watch. They also captured a suspect who admitted to being an accomplice in the robbery but not to shooting Prothero. The next day another man was arrested. Both men had long criminal records, and both denied shooting Sergeant Prothero.

The police grilled Mary Moore continuously, but she could only repeat the truth: “she had no idea where the boys were and had not seen them in weeks” (150).