The Columbia man shot to death this weekend was a known member of a local gang that continues to terrorize the community, a former Howard police officer told The Examiner on Monday.

“I wouldn’t walk through Oakland Mills at night alone; I didn’t even feel safe with my gun,” said the ex-officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Jason Batts, 23, of Painted Yellow Gate, died Saturday morning in the parking lot of Stevens Forest Apartments on Stevens Forest Road in Columbia, Howard police said.

The former officer said Batts and his twin brother Brandon were in the Long Reach Crew, which “regularly terrorizes Columbia and surrounding communities with robberies, assaults, narcotics dealings, graffiti and general intimidation tactics.”

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“Unfortunately, Mr. Batts, who was once part of the problem, is now a victim of the same culture he helped create,” said the officer, who received death threats from LRC members while working in Oakland Mills.

The officer said he regularly saw Batts, who reported to the Long Reach Village Community Center while on probation.

Batts’ mother, Debra Batts, is a Baltimore County police detective. “My son is not in any kind of gang, and if you put that in the paper, you’re putting in lies,” she said Monday.

Court records show Batts had pleaded guilty to drug possession charges and a handgun violation, among other charges.

Howard police consider LRC a “wannabe” gang, the former officer said, but included it in a gang information presentation in 2005 after an influx of MS-13 gang members to the area.

“If you ask me, any gang member who’s carrying a weapon and robbing people is not a wannabe,” the former officer said. “They’re getting the job done.”

The presentation, he said, featured a Long Reach High School yearbook photograph of Batts and his brother Brandon reading “LRC for life.”

The 2002 Long Reach High School yearbook, however, only shows a photograph of Brandon Batts.

Police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said she was not aware of the presentation, and “it seems unlikely that anyone would be identifiable in a presentation like that. I don’t know why they would display photographs of a known gang member like that.”

Stevens Forest residents said police recovered two red bandanas from the homicide scene.

“Most of the guys in Long Reach started wearing red, but there was never any proof to corroborate that they were affiliating with Bloods,” the former officer said.

Llewellyn would not confirm whether bandanas were recovered, saying police are “getting lot of information and sorting through what pieces of information are viable leads.”

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com