Apartment building security guard killed
Shooting victim gunned down late Friday at Pedestal Gardens complex
A security guard at an apartment complex in Madison Park was found fatally shot late Friday night outside the building.
Baltimore police reported that a Central District officer was flagged down by a security guard about 11 p.m. and was told another guard had been shot. Officers found the 29-year-old man unresponsive outside the rear of the complex in the 1500 block of Eutaw Place.
Medics pronounced the victim dead at the scene. As of late Saturday, police had not disclosed his identity.
The block is occupied by the Pedestal Gardens apartment complex. Police said the guard worked at the complex, which is four blocks north of State Center and close to Bolton Hill. They said detectives were canvassing the neighborhood Saturday as part of an “active and fluid” investigation.
Pedestal Gardens is a red brick Section 8 building with four floors. Apartment sizes range from 660 square feet to 1,112, with units of up to four bedrooms.
The complex has been the scene of previous violence.
Last year, a 16-year-old boy was shot to death in a second-floor vestibule of one of the buildings in the complex, which lies across McMechen Street from EutawMarshburn Elementary School.
On Saturday afternoon, there were two security guards on duty, one armed and one not. Both said they were under orders from their employer not to speak with reporters.
A visitor to Pedestal Gardens, who described himself as a former exterminator there, said there are typically two guards on duty there — one of them armed. The man declined to give his name because of fear of retaliation.
There were few people outside in the complex’s central court Saturday even though it was sunny and warm.
The exterminator said it was “eerie” to see so little activity. “I’ve never seen it like that,” he said. Multiple rental websites say the complex is managed by Interstate Realty Management, an arm of The Michaels Organization. A recording at Michaels’ headquarters said its offices were closed Saturday. A number listed as Interstate Realty’s local office at Pedestal Gardens was out of service.
State tax records show the complex is owned by TCB Pedestal Gardens LLC and is assessed at about $4 million.
Around the same time the guard was killed Friday night, police recorded another homicide, this one in the Northern District.
Police responded about 11:20 p.m.for a report of a crash in the 2500 block of Greenmount Ave. Medics at the scene told them the driver had a bullet wound in his upper body.
The victim was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead.
Police said the man had been driving on Greenmount when he was shot by an unidentified person. The man’s vehicle then crashed into another vehicle.
The driver of the other vehicle was taken to a hospital for treatment. Police did not release details of that driver’s condition.