BALTIMORE — Baltimore City wrapped up the month of July with almost as many homicides as there were days, 30 to be exact.
It was a weekend full of sirens, crimes scenes and broken hearts across Baltimore as 13 people were shot, 4 died from their injuries and another man, according to police, was beaten to death.
“It’s just way too ridiculous. Way too many people. Way too many older people. Way too many younger people getting killed,” said one resident.
It’s a clear frustration she expressed after hearing about an 18-year-old gunned down just blocks away from her home Saturday.
It’s grief from a distance for her, but for Michael Gilyard, it’s up close and personal.
“When I first heard he got killed, I broke down crying. I was mad. I saw him Friday. I told him I’d come up and chill with him. When I heard he got hit I was scared as s*** and stuff like that,” shared Gilyard.
His friends called him the 18-year-old that was killed near Mondawmin Mall on Gwynns Falls Parkway Reef.
“We need justice for him and stuff like that. He ain’t know what was going on and stuff like that,” Gilyard told WMAR-2 News.
Earlier that morning, just after midnight, two young men were shot on East Oliver Street.
Police identified one of them as 19-year-old Deante Edwards.
There is a $16,000 reward for any tip that will lead to an arrest in that case as police continue to investigate more homicides across the city.
Friday morning’s quadruple shooting left 34-year-old Bartimeus Morris and 17-year-old Evay Hendriques dead.
Two others were hit in the shooting including a woman in her 60’s waiting at the bus stop.
“Sacredness, afraid and it could be me you know,” Donna Powell described.
It’s fueled fear for her as she spends time daily waiting for her bus at the bus stop.
She’s fortunate enough to keep a good distance from the violence, but for another bus driver, just over the weekend, she felt what she describes as terror.
“I fell on top of him trying to run from someone chasing someone with a gun because they said he stole his bike while we were on a bus stop, so we ran through traffic, ran on top of him to get away. It’s crazy,” said Carmen Brown.
The prevalence of violence in Baltimore accompanies a shrinking homicide clearance rate across the city, with just 36.6 percent of homicides leading to an arrest.
That’s down from the last couple of years where in 2020 that number was 40.3 percent and in 2021 it was 42 percent.
