Police: 8 Shots, 1 Deadly, Last Shooting in Baltimore

BALTIMORE – An armed man fired indiscriminately at a crowd gathered for Sunday afternoon meals along a Baltimore west street, killing one man and wounding seven other people, announced the authorities.

Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said the shots were fired after 5 pm in a neighborhood in the west end of the city, consisting of houses in rows of bricks. Harrison said that a man approached a crowd on foot and started shooting in what he called "a very loose and very tragic shot". Speaking at the scene, Mr. Harrison said the shot seemed "extremely focused", but he did not provide a possible result. pattern.

The shooting comes about six weeks after Harrison's swearing in last month as police commissioner in Baltimore, when he promised to make the city safer and to lead the department through radical reforms required by a federal consent decree. This is an arduous task in one of the poorest cities in the country, where over 300 homicides have been committed in each of the last two years. Harrison is the 14th chief of police in the city since the mid-90s.

The Commissioner stated that two cooktops were being held Sunday on the other side of the street and that sockets had been found at two different locations, indicating that there may have been a second shooter or a person shooting at the first shooter who escaped. foot. It was not clear if the cooktops were related, Harrison said.

A fallen man collapsed behind a nearby Baptist church and was declared dead on the scene. Harrison first announced that six other people had been injured and taken to the hospital, but he did not reveal their names or health status. A police statement later revealed that a man had been killed but did not give his age. He said five of the survivors were men between the ages of 27 and 58, as well as a 30-year-old woman.

The Baltimore Sun quoted a police spokesman Sunday night in the evening as saying that an eighth victim, a man shot in the leg, was reportedly hospitalized. The report did not work out.

"It was not about the church at all. I want it to be very clear, "said Acting Mayor Jack Young.

Harrison and Young, appearing with reporters, urged members of the public to assist investigators with any information regarding participation or motives.

"Someone knows something," Young said. "These things … they do not happen by chance. People know who is doing these shootings. "

The Baltimore Sun reported that sockets had been found scattered on the floor near grills, and that there were still left on a table objects left by a cooktop. After the shooting, police could have seen small orange markers on the floor, just steps from a hair salon.

At the same time, Harrison said the authorities were looking for witnesses among the many people present Sunday as they were trying to gather details of what had happened.

Baltimore has been a victim of drug-related violence for decades and has long been considered one of the most violent cities in the country. The corrosive impact of the drug trade and a multitude of illicit weapons continue to cause a depressing recession of thunderous wars and retaliatory attacks in areas of the city, particularly in areas deeply disinherited West Baltimore.

As municipal leaders continue their perpetual quest to rebuild the city for investors and potential visitors, Baltimore is experiencing a worrying increase in the number of violent crimes since 2015, when the homicide rate increased after the worst riots in the city since the death of a young black man in custody.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.