Double shooting year’s first homicide
Early Sunday marked first reported Baltimore killing: ‘Oh, no! That’s my sister!’
A 17-year-old girl was killed early Sunday in a double shooting in East Baltimore, the first homicide Baltimore Police announced this year.
Patrol officers from the Eastern District responded around 3:29 a.m. to a ShotSpotter alert in the 700 block of North Glover Street in the Madison-Eastend neighborhood, where they found the girl with apparent gunshot injuries.
The victim was taken to a hospital, where she later died.Police said a second victim was shot in the same block of North Glover. Officers on the scene were told about a walk-in victim at a hospital and arrived to find a 31-year-old man with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
Margaret Swain, a 69-year-old resident of the short block of tidy brick rowhouses with marble steps, said a noise woke her up, and she peered outside to see damage to her car parked below. She opened her front door and was shocked to find the girl slumped on the sidewalk. Swain, who works as an assistant pastor and has lived on the block for 40 years, called police, then watched as medics administered aid.
Swain said she saw police hold back a woman, who screamed, “‘Oh, no! That’s my sister! That’s my sister!’ ”
Swain found out this morning that the girl, whom police have not identified, had died.
“My sister-in-law called me this morning and said she was gone; she passed,” Swain said. “She was young. I feel sorry for her parents . ... The only thing we can do is pray.”
Ervin Bailey, who has owned a home on the block for 53 years, had returned home from a family gathering before midnight and was watching a movie when he heard gunshots ring out.
“Bang. Bang. Bang Bang. Bang,” he recalled hearing. “I heard it in the back, and I heard it in the front. I ain’t opening my door. I ain’t looking out there because I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I was surprised a young lady got shot.”
Bailey, 73 and retired from Tenax Corp., was among residents who described their block as close-knit and safe, typically free from the violence and drug-dealing that has increasingly plagued other parts of the neighborhood. Neighbors said they know and check on one another regularly.
Bailey, who grew up in a city housing project, lamented how times have changed because of the gun culture since he was a child, blaming families’ lack of control over kids and an unwillingness among young people to take entry-level jobs.
“Yes, we got in fights,” he said. “Nobody got shot.”
On Sunday afternoon, six cars on the narrow one-way street had bullet holes and punctures, and shattered glass from the gunfire and splotches of blood remained on the sidewalk and street near East Monument Street.
Melvin Hernandez said he came outside Sunday morning to find a neighbor’s car had been damaged by gunfire. Then he saw the bullet hole in his own front windshield. It was the first time he could recall any violence on his street in the three years he has lived there with his wife and two young sons.
“Everyone here is friends,” he said. “We talk every day.”
Swain said the shooting hasn’t changed the way she feels about her block.
“It’s a really nice block,” she said. “We look out for one another.”
Homicide detectives are asking anyone with information to contact them at 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7Lockup.