At least seven injured in Baltimore shooting as city law enforcement leaders gather across town

A ‘multi-victim shooting’ in Northwest Baltimore left seven people injured and one dead around 12:30 Wednesday afternoon, according police, the Baltimore Banner reports. 

The Baltimore Firefighters Union tweeted that four EMS units were called to the intersection of Park Heights Avenue and Shirley Avenue in Northwest Baltimore to transport and treat ‘several injured victims.’ 

Baltimore Police said about an hour after the shooting that the city’s police commissioner Michael Harrison and public information officer were ‘on scene of a multi-victim shooting in the Northwest District.’ 

No deaths have been reported by officials at this time.

As the shooting took place in Northwest Baltimore, law enforcement leaders were gathered across town in East Baltimore for a press conference.

Mayor Brandon Scott, along with Maryland District Attorney Erek Barron and several other top federal, state, city officials spoke at Tench Tilghman park to discuss how a boost in state funding is being used to fight crime ‘by any legal means necessary.’

Barron said the state wouldn’t hesitate to go after violent offenders for lesser offenses like fraud in order to get them off the streets — the ‘Al Capone method.’ 

Violent offenders are also often found to engage in fraud, taking advantage COVID relief and unemployment programs, according to the officials. Barron said the city and state will be ‘vetting (top targets) for any and all offenses that can be charged.’

As the shooting took place in Northwest Baltimore, law enforcement leaders were gathered across town in East Baltimore for a press conference

Mayor Brandon Scott, along with Maryland District Attorney Erek Barron and several other top federal, state, city officials spoke at Tench Tilghman park to discuss how a boost in state funding is being used to fight crime ‘by any legal means necessary’

Maryland District Attorney Erek Barron said the state wouldn’t hesitate to go after violent offenders for lesser offenses like fraud in order to get them off the streets, what he described as the ‘Al Capone method’

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, who in 2021 led efforts to cut police funding by $22 million as a city councilman before pleading over the spring for $27 million more for the police department

Baltimore saw 337 homicides in 2021, up from 334 in 2020, and well above the 290 that the city’s Mayor Brandon Scott had hoped his new ‘violence reduction’ strategies would bring the homicide rate down to in 2021.

Non-fatal shootings increased from 721 in 2020, to 726 in 2021. 

‘We can’t accept that this life loss is normal,’ Scott, who last year led efforts to cut police funding by $22 million as a city councilman before pleading over the spring for $27 million more for the police department, told the Baltimore Sun Times.

Nonfatal shootings increased from 721 in 2020, to 726 in 2021 – roughly a 1 percent increase

The Charm City saw a slight increase in murders from 334 in 2020