Man killed at cemetery was brother of the deceased

A Baltimore family who just lost one son to gun violence will now have to bury another.

Baltimore County police confirmed Thursday that a 32-year-old man who was fatally shot during the funeral service of 18-year-old Marcus Brown on Wednesday was his older brother, Maurice Brown Jr., of the 300 block of Lyndhurst St. in West Baltimore.

Security footage from a business near the Mount Zion Cemetery in Landsdowne shows mourners scrambling through gravestones as Maurice Brown falls to the ground.

Brown and another victim, both of whom were injured in the upper portions of their bodies, were taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, according to Baltimore County police. The second victim, a 25-year-old man, remains in critical condition.

Marcus Brown was fatally shot on Aug. 25, in the 1400 block of N. Mount St. in Sandtown-Winchester.

Reached at his home Thursday, the father of Maurice and Marcus Brown declined to comment.

The graveside shooting was the latest event in a disturbing trend of violence during bereavement services in Baltimore.

Less than a week ago, mourners had just released blue balloons into the air at Eager Street and North Broadway to honor Dimetric Jones, 21, who had been killed on Sept. 3, when gunfire rang out, scattering a crowd that included children and striking a 19-year-old man.

The Rev. Cleveland Mason was one of several religious leaders who presided over Marcus Brown’s funeral service Wednesday at Perkins Square Baptist Church in Rosemont. Mason called the killings “senseless.” ”We just need a real change in the community,” he said. “I doubt these days that people understand what community really means. But only people can change it, not politicians or police.”

The pastor, who said extended members of the Brown family have attended his church for years, wants families to talk to their children about what really matters.

“We are losing our sense of the sacredness of life,” he said.