Community shaken by shooting of 16-year-old
Patterson High student remembered as ‘a really normal teenager in the best ways possible’
After Monday’s shooting of a 16-year-old student shocked the neighborhood around Patterson High School, friends and family remembered the victim, Izaiah Carter, as “a good kid,” while members of the Southeast Baltimore community promised to fight against the violence.
Baltimore Police said officers responded around 2 p.m. on Monday to a Joseph E. Lee Park adjacent to the high school and found Carter unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds, including at least one to his head. Carter was taken to a hospital, where he died.
The Patterson campus was quiet Tuesday aside from the gusty March wind.
Classes and after-school programs at the school in Bayview were canceled for a day of recovery. Counselors were available at the school for students who wanted to process their grief with peers. Four teenagers hugged each other at one point outside the building’s entrance.
Friends shared photos and videos of Izaiah on social media that showcased what they said was his goofy personality. Patterson High’s junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps said Izaiah was a cadet, and shared a photo of the school’s flags flying at half-mast Tuesday.
Carter had been working as a dishwasher at Forno, an Italian restaurant on North Eutaw Street downtown, for the past six months alongside his father and cousin, who both work in the kitchen as cooks.
Owner Ricky Johnson described Carter as “a good kid, a really normal teenager in the best ways possible, acting goofy and fun to be around.”
Johnson said when Carter started he was quiet but was quickly coming out of his shell.
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“He was really starting to feel like he was blossoming by running food to tables and helping out in the front of the house and talking to customers,” Johnson said.
“And he wasn’t just a random kid, he was part of [Forno’s] family. This whole thing is so shocking and upsetting.”
Cesar Romero, owner of J.C. Romero’s Neighborhood Café a few blocks away from the park where the shooting took place, said students often stop by his business after school.
In recent months through word of mouth and videos of fights at school, Romero said community members had sensed growing tensions among students. He organized a meeting with leaders from the school, police department and community in January to talk about youth violence.
“I think this is preventable,” Romero said. “You need to stop crime before it happens.
“I don’t want any life lost, any future kid in the neighborhood to get killed. His dreams are gone. This is ridiculous. This does not have to happen.
“I don’t want to see another fight like this. I don’t want to see a Black kid die. I don’t want to see a Latino kid die. It’s too many.
“It’s like nobody cares. Nobody cares what’s going on. Not one of you needs to die just because one of you has gun.”
Romero, who is from El Salvador and opened the cafe in 2006, said the park has a community center the city closed in 2019, while both the basketball courts and soccer fields are unplayable and in need of repair.
“The park alone was one of the reasons my family moved here,” said Stacey Hubbard, a Bayview community association member.
“The recreation center was bustling with after-school programs my children participated in. The community association used to screen movies on the field in the summer.
“This adds a little bit of fear that I’m not familiar with in this neighborhood, and I think I’m angry. I’m sad, but I’m angry.”
Hubbard said she witnessed a large fight among students three weeks ago in which one teenager was stabbed and she believes the shooting might have been retaliation for that incident.
“When I spoke to our school leadership and the [city council] after the stabbing and talked to them about it, they were like, ‘OK we’re going to start working on it,’ ” Hubbard said. “I’m sick of hearing that. You’ve got to make some moves.
“There has to be some sort of buy-in from this community to raise leaders in the school that understand the impacts of violence. It can’t just be that the kids are traumatized and they have no outlet, no place to feel like they are helping solve the issue, like they’re victims all the time. We have to empower them.”
Hubbard lives close by, but her daughters don’t attend Patterson High.
“It’s within walking distance, but I wouldn’t send my own kids there,” she said. “I’m in it for the long haul. I’m not sure what I signed up for, but I’m not going to back down.”
On Monday Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison and Baltimore City Public School CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises held a news conference in the park. Mayor Brandon Scott was also at the scene.
“Today’s loss is tremendous,” Scott said in a statement issued by his office Monday evening. “Another family has lost a loved one; another community has lost a young life; and Baltimore has lost the potential that this young person could have poured into our city.”
Romero organized a community meeting Tuesday evening at the park, where about a dozen community members showed to discuss the ongoing youth violence and potential solutions.
“There were a lot of cameras here yesterday with the mayor, the CEO and the commissioner,” Romero said in Spanish. “I want to do something that serves the people.
“I want the family to know they are part of this community. They are not alone. They are with us, and we have a lot of hard work to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
According to Baltimore City Schools data, Patterson is the most diverse high school in the city as 50% of its 1,335 students are Hispanic, while 43% are Black. At the school adjacent to the Joseph Lee neighborhood within Bayview, 43% of students qualify as English Language Learners and 89% are from families that qualify for SNAP benefits.
Johnson learned of Izaiah’s death from Carter’s father in a phone call. The restaurateur decided to remain closed Tuesday to let the staff grieve in their own way.
“It’s a lot to take in,” he said. “We’re heartbroken for the family. I feel for the family and can’t fathom what they are going through.
“You just hurt for them.”
“His dreams are gone. This is ridiculous. This does not have to happen.” — Cesar Romero, neighborhood business owner