Mother of Naval Academy Midshipman Fatally Shot Outside Maryland Hotel

The mother of a Naval Academy midshipman lost her life after being fatally shot outside of her Annapolis hotel on Tuesday morning.

Michelle Jordan Cummings, 57, was visiting Maryland from Houston, Texas to drop off her son, Leonard Cummings III, at the Naval Academy, KXXV reports. Police don’t believe that Cummings was the intended target, but she was hit while seated at an outdoor patio at the Graduate Hotel.

According to police. the shots were fired on Pleasant Street and traveled a short distance to where Cummings was sitting at around 12:21 am. Officers and emergency personnel attempted life-saving measures, but Cummings died at the scene, Fox Baltimore reports.

“This is a very difficult, very frustrating day for me,” Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson said in a press conference.

Authorities said the victim was shot “more than once,” but didn’t indicate how many times she may have been shot. Police are investigating for any active leads.

Jackson referred to the shooting as a “very tragic story… Ms. Cummings and her husband brought their son to settle in. He is to be inducted into the U.S. Naval Academy; he’s also a prospect for the football team, so what turned out to be a celebratory occasion for the family… turned into a tragic event.”

Her son will continue with his induction activities at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. The city’s mayor Gavin Buckley said a crisis intervention team is providing support for the Cummings family, KHOU-11 reports.

“There is no circumstance where this can be tolerated,” Buckley said in a statement. “My sympathies go out to the family. We are focused on getting guns off the street, but it only takes one criminal with a gun for the results to be tragic. This was a horrific outcome for the kind of everyday gun violence that many cities across America see. Annapolis is sadly not immune.”