Police Have No Suspects After NIH Researcher's Murder In Northeast Baltimore
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- The brazen murder of a researcher and scientist has shaken his Northeast Baltimore community. Now, the killer remains on the loose.
Mike Hellgren has more on the senseless crime.
Police have released few details on this shooting but they still believe it was a botched robbery.
Police are in the middle of an intense search for Dr. Peter Marvit's killer but have made no arrests.
There are shreds of crime tape along Chesterfield Avenue on the border of Herring Run Park near Bel Air Road where the well-regarded National Institutes of Health (NIH) researcher was gunned down Monday night.
Several tell WJZ he was shot three times.
"Two bullets hit him on his face and one hit on his body," Brennan Meeks, who lives on Chesterfield Avenue, said. "I actually saw the bullet go through him."
WJZ captured a visible police presence on Wednesday, which is soothing to Dorothy Baumer, who's lived in the neighborhood for 50 years.
"Hopefully, they apprehend the person who did this. This was a good man," she said.
Police think the motive may be robbery but wouldn't say whether anything was taken from Marvit, who'd just arrived home from a chorus rehearsal.
Neighbors told WJZ that while the area is generally safe, they have been complaining about drug dealing in the alley and along the park for several months.
"We do know there was some sort of altercation right at the car, whether there was one suspect or multiple suspects. We're still working on that," John Skinner, Baltimore Police Department's deputy commissioner, said. "Right now, any motive that we give you is really speculative on our part."
Anthony Player will never forget what he saw.
"They just constantly kept pushing on his chest trying to get him back. It just seemed unreal," he said. "It's sad for how they killed that man for nothing, you know."
The doctor's funeral services will be private. Community leaders will hold a march at Chesterfield Avenue and Bel Air Road on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. to show their solidarity.
Marvit's loved ones have requested donations be made to the Baltimore Choral Society, the group he sang with the night of his death.
