‘Kids are traumatized’
15-year-old girl in critical condition after being shot at North Baltimore elementary and middle school
A young elementary school student stopped in his tracks Thursday morning at the sight of a police car parked on the sidewalk in front of his school.
“Why are the police here?” the boy asked an adult he hadn’t met before as he looked around with a bewildered expression.
The police presence at Walter P. Carter Elementary/Middle School was the first sign for students and parents that something went wrong at this North Baltimore school hours before.
A 15-year-old girl was shot and critically injured Wednesday evening on school grounds. Baltimore Police said the girl was a freshman at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, a feeder school for the Wilson Park neighborhood where she was wounded.
Her injury marks another startling instance of a young person wounded by gun violence near schools, eroding their image as bastions of safety.
“Never in a million years did I think children are not safe in schools,” said Lisa as she walked her 5-year-old grandson into the freshly renovated Walter P. Carter school building. She declined to share her last name because of safety concerns. “It used to go home, church, school, in that order. That’s the safest.”
The perception that children and schools are off-limit targets for criminals is changing, Lisa said, as young people become shooters who use easily accessible guns to settle teenage drama. “Getting guns in the city is like buying candy,” she said.
Six other teens have been shot in Baltimore since Sunday. In the first two months of this year, five people under age 18 have been shot and killed in the city. The youngest victim was 8 years old. And 17 minors have been injured in shootings this year.
Two teens were killed and at least two others injured in separate shootings near their respective schools.
Three people arrested in connection to shootings with teenage victims are teens themselves. Baltimore Police arrested and charged a 16-year-old Wednesday with first-degree murder stemming from the fatal shooting of Deanta Dorsey, 16, that also injured four other Edmondson-Westside High School students who were gathered at a shopping center across the street from the school.
Last year, 21 of Baltimore’s homicide victims were minors, the highest number since 2019, when there were 22. Also last year, 68 minors were wounded by gunfire, the highest number in at least the past four years.
Parents and relatives who dropped their children off at Walter P. Carter Elementary/ Middle on Thursday said they were shocked to learn a teen was shot on school grounds and comforted by the police officers who greeted them.
Kevin, who also declined to share his last name because of safety concerns, said his niece was uneasy to come to school after she told him about the shooting. She relaxed after he explained that she was safe. ‘I’m glad school wasn’t in session,” Kevin said from his car after dropping her off. “I’ve never heard of something like that happening around here.”
Lisa said she tries to protect her young grandson’s innocence by shielding news of shootings, which she called the “S-word.” But there are daily reminders of the city’s enduring violence. Ambulances blare past her house at all hours of the night. Police helicopters hover at deafeningly low heights, scaring her grandson.
“Kids are traumatized,” she said.
Police closed off the school’s parking lot and front entrance to collect evidence Wednesday night, after a person flagged down an officer around 6:10 p.m. in the 800 block of East 43rd Street to report an armed person was on school property.
There, paramedics took the 15-yearold girl to a hospital for surgery, Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Worley said Wednesday at a news conference outside the school. She remained in critical but stable condition Thursday, police said.
Although the Wednesday shooting occurred in the evening, an aftercare program in the school was running when the gunshots rang out, Mayor Brandon Scott said at a news conference.
“We are sitting here at a shooting at a brand-new 21st century school, with young people still in aftercare who are now going to be traumatized because they saw, or heard, or know someone got shot outside of that building,” Scott said.
Police ask anyone with information to call Northern District investigators at 410-3962455, or anonymously use the Metro Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-866-7LOCKUP.