Baltimore Mayor Call to Action to Combat Crime

BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- Thursday night Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh held an impromptu meeting at City Hall to demand real solutions to what she says has been a losing battle against crime in the City.

A fiery Mayor Pugh cited recent violence in the City as the final straw for this meeting.

The mayor says she's not looking for original solutions and she's tapping every available resource to do it.

The mayor cited a violent murder at an east Baltimore barbershop caught on surveillance video last month as one of many violent crimes that has pushed her to the edge.

"Anytime feel comfortable in the daylight to walk up and shoot somebody in their head that's like slaying people. That says to me you don't value life in our city. I value every single life of every individual in Baltimore," Pugh says.

The 26-year-old man was murdered execution style, according to police. They are still looking for the killer.

Now Pugh is calling for action, saying violent acts like this will not stand.

The meeting at City Hall had the who's who of community leaders to get what Pugh describes as 'real solutions' to combat crime in the city.

From more police interaction with the community to resources for people reentering society"

"I ran on a platform of bringing this city together an moving our city forward, I ran on a platform of being committed every single day," she says.

Pugh says the meeting Thursday night was meant to be small but quickly ballooned into something much larger.

Those in attendance were just as eager to get to work.

"We want this to be solution based and then driven by those that are influencers and stakeholders in the community," one man says.

"She wants it to happen immediately," another man says.

Baltimore City Police Commissioner Kevin Davis called the meeting invigorating. "We might have different ideas on how to get there, but we all know we have to get there."

She says this really is only the start of a much larger plan of action. More than 100 community leaders attended Thursday's meeting.

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