Baltimore Teen Encouraged by Parents to Turn Himself in Is Held on $500,000 Bail, Faces Life in Prison

Bullock faces charges of rioting and malicious destruction of property, among other criminal counts, after turning himself in at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center with his stepfather, Maurice Hawkins, at his side.

According to Hawkins, who saw footage of his stepson on Saturday, the teen agreed to turn himself in after his stepfather told him that the police would “find him, knock down our door and beat him” if he didn’t…

…Hawkins now believes that they are making an example of the teen. “By turning himself in, he also let me know he was growing as a man and he recognized what he did was wrong,” Hawkins told The Guardian on Wednesday. “But they are making an example of him, and it is not right.”

“As parents, we wanted Allen to do the right thing,” Bullock’s mother, Bobbi Smallwood, said. “He was dead wrong, and he does need to be punished. But he wasn’t leading this riot. He hasn’t got that much power.”

…The eight misdemeanor charges Bullock face are his first as an adult, with rioting carrying a maximum of life in prison. The Guardian, however, says that his parents believe that four to eight years is a more likely sentence. Bullock, who was convicted of minor offenses as a juvenile, was working in city sanitation under a program for people in juvenile probation, The Guardian notes, earning more than $15,000 a year.