Local
Six shootings reported in Baltimore since Saturday as mayor convenes emergency meeting
Two triple shootings in Belair-Edison and Franklintown left three people dead and others wounded amid six reported shootings since Saturday. Mayor Brandon Scott called a closed-door command meeting as year-to-date figures show homicides slightly below last year but nonfatal shootings up.
Baltimore police reported six shootings since Saturday, including two triple shootings that left three people dead, prompting Mayor Brandon Scott to convene an emergency meeting with his command staff on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
In Belair-Edison, a 39-year-old man was killed overnight near his home after someone fired multiple shots, police said. The shooting followed a triple shooting Monday night near Belair Road and Erdman Avenue. Rita Crews, president of the neighborhood association, said the man had taken time off work to celebrate his birthday.
A separate triple shooting in Franklintown, on Windsor Mill Road near Forest Park Avenue, killed a 30-year-old man and a 24-year-old man, police said. A 21-year-old man survived. The investigation extended to Muth Avenue, about a block away.
Scott said he called the meeting to press city staff to sustain efforts he credited with Baltimore’s longer-term decline in violence. He said the city would not abandon strategies that have worked, while noting that several conflicts between groups are contributing to the recent shootings.
The recent deaths come as Baltimore’s year-to-date figures show 101 homicides, compared with 105 at the same point last year. Nonfatal shootings, however, have risen to 253 from 247.
Residents voiced grief and frustration as well as hope that violence would fall again. One Belair-Edison resident said the recent events brought back painful memories and made them worry for the city.