City Gun Violence In Spotlight After Public Figures Lose Loved Ones
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The violence is not letting up on Baltimore's streets. So far this month, the city has seen more than one murder each day.
Mayor Catherine Pugh said Wednesday morning that she wants to toughen gun laws, and push to make carrying an illegal weapon a felony. She also says too much violence is occurring around drug treatment centers, and she wonders whether more should be mobile, whether they're magnets for drug dealers.
Pugh also offered her condolences to Baltimore Police spokesman T.J. Smith, whose brother was shot and killed in his home on Sunday.
Police have released surveillance video related to the slaying of 24-year-old Dionay Smith, who was also a father of three.
T.J. Smith wrote on Facebook: "A coward with a gun entered my brother's apartment and shot and killed him... To many, he will be #173, but to me and my family, he's Dion, a brother, a son, a father, a friend, a nephew, and a kind soul."
Dionay was the 173rd homicide victim in Baltimore this year.
Smith is not the only prominent Baltimorean touched by the recent bloodshed.
On July 1, 22-year-old Louis "Cody" Young, the stepson of noted defense attorney Warren Brown, was shot and killed outside a gas station.
Police also released surveillance video in that murder, and Brown issued a plea to bring those behind it to justice.
He also offered a $10,000 reward.
"I've tried as much as I can not to seek vengeance and to seek justice, but quite frankly, either one will do just so these guys are no longer engaged in their predatory and deadly behavior on the streets of Baltimore," Brown said.
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