More Than 20 People Shot Since Friday In Baltimore, Mayor Weighs In On Violence
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- At least 22 people have been shot in Baltimore since Friday alone.
WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren spoke to a man who heard gunshots ring out just after 9:30 p.m. Monday on Parksley Avenue, about a block from the Southwestern District Precinct.
A 35-year-old woman was shot in the face. Police are looking for a 2019 white Acura TLX that fled the scene with a partial Maryland license plate "8EN."
"I heard the car drive off. I heard them zip down the alley," he told Hellgren, declining to give his full name. "Nobody's safe. I don't care where you are or what neighborhood you're in. Nobody's safe—even at the Harbor."
For weeks, WJZ has spoken to people demanding leaders do something to stop the bloodshed affecting all parts of the city.
WJZ caught up with Mayor Brandon Scott for his perspective.
"We have to as a city grow to a point where we just don't accept that people are going to resolve stupid, petty simple conflicts with gun violence, right? We have to be better as a city," the mayor said Tuesday morning.
"This year, the police department has made 322 gun arrests and taken over 400 guns off the street," Scott added. "They've cleared over 52% of their homicides. We're going to continue to be aggressive, focusing in on those people. . . . Our violence intervention workers have mediated over 400 conflicts that probably would have ended in violence this year alone."
The mayor advocated what he called a comprehensive approach.
"There are young people, older people we know who are committing these acts of violence over stupid stuff," he said. "And when are we as a community also going to step up? We cannot solely rely on the police."
For the man who heard those gunshots in Southwest Baltimore Monday night, that is not good enough. "From his position, he should have another point of view. He should be doing something about it instead of talking about it. He's talking about somebody else doing the job. He needs to do the job. He's the mayor."
At least 20 people have been murdered in Baltimore this month.
In Annapolis on Tuesday, a House committee considered a key bill in Governor Larry Hogan's crime reduction package, which deals with judicial accountability.
If passed, Maryland would publish average sentences, time suspended from sentences and sentences that depart from guidelines.
The bill would not name judges, as previously proposed, but it would list that sentencing information by location.
