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Baltimore Police Announce New Patrol Strategy As Homicides Rise

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore police announced a new citywide patrol strategy as another violent weekend passes.

A homicide Sunday night in the Mondawmin neighborhood marked the 148th homicide this year, 15 more than this time last year.

Two more on Monday brought the total to 150 this year.

A 32-year-old man was fatally shot near a metro stop in northwest Baltimore on Monday at around 2 p.m., and another man was killed in a shooting an hour earlier in West Baltimore.

Man Fatally Shot Near NW Baltimore Transit Station

The 32-year-old's death marked the 150th murder in 2019.

Tia Palmer would rather hear her daughters play plastic flutes than hear more police sirens.

"I don't want to take them nowhere, because we don't know what's going to happen. The streets are getting dangerous," Palmer said.

Sunday night, a homicide investigation was in her backyard.

"Every day, I feel like there's a shooting that's gonna happen," Palmer said.

It happened on Whittier and Pulaski around 9 p.m. Sunday night.

"We believe they used bricks and possibly some other items that may have been on the scene to kill the victim," said Baltimore City Detective Jeremy Silbert.

"Parents can't let their children come outside because of all the shootings," Palmer said.

Baltimore police began a new patrol strategy last week, creating "microzones" throughout the City, where violent crime is more prevalent.

A spokesperson confirmed that officers are now required to spend time on their shifts in these zones, walking around, talking, investigating and enforcing.

"What do you think, walking the streets, they don't trust the police, so what's gonna change?" Palmer said. "I think as a community, we gotta take it back. We can't depend on the police to do it for us. We gotta do it ourselves,"

"It's a good idea for them to patrol more like they used to years ago, you know, foot walk around," another neighbor said.

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Monday afternoon, another shooting nearby happened at Parkwood and Fulton. Mayor Young echoed his frustration this weekend that people aren't turning the shooters in.

"People are so used to people sugarcoating things-- elected leaders sugar-coating things-- when you tell them the truth, they don't want to hear it. I'm sick and tired of these shootings. I'm sick and tired of the murders, and they should be sick and tired of it too," Mayor Young said.

These so-called microzones are two by two block areas that have seen the most violence in the past five years.

The exact number of these zones has not been determined and their locations will not be made public.

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