Brooklyn Homes community works to heal one year after Baltimore's worst mass shooting
BALTIMORE -- The Brooklyn Homes community came together to mourn and heal one year after Baltimore's worst mass shooting.
Gunfire struck 30 people, killing two -- 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez and 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi -- on July 2, 2023, at the annual Brooklyn Day block party.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott says at least 17 Brooklyn residents are still under case management working through the lasting trauma from the mass shooting.
"These residents of Brooklyn are very resilient," Scott said.
This year's block party looked different.
"Love and kindness are being pulled back into this community, and it's my hope that it continues," said Deshawn Batson, from Beyond the Walls Christian Ministries.
Angel Salisbury will never forget what happened.
"I saw people running down the streets screaming. It was very chaotic that day," the Brooklyn Homes resident told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. "It's hard because it leaves a scar on people. It's traumatic for a lot of people."
"Healing and Wellness" event
The Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) returned Tuesday to the Brooklyn neighborhood to help families heal from the trauma of that violent day.
Twelve hours after the shooting, MONSE walked around the neighborhood to speak to neighbors about the tragedy that unfolded.
The community responded with frustration and sorrow, expressing that they felt forgotten and only had limited resources.
MONSE brought in trauma response teams, housing assistance and social workers to help approve SNAP benefits on the spot.
"MONSE in particular has built relationships with individuals and connections to the community that had never been felt in Brooklyn in such a large way before — and that work is now being used to inform and improve our work everywhere in the city," Scott said in a statement. "The outpouring of love that has been shown for Brooklyn and the active collaboration with local community-based organizations was not only instrumental in identifying how we can best tailor resources in the immediate aftermath but has been a consistent source of comfort and support since then."
A year later, MONSE hosted a "Brooklyn Healing and Wellness" event on Tuesday to ensure that these resources remain accessible to residents still feeling the pain from that night.
"Healing won't happen immediately, even after a year," MONSE Associated Director of Victim Services Mark Mason said. "We have a lot of work to do and we are going to continue to stand there and continue to empower that community to continue on that healing path."
The wellness and healing event went from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Brooklyn Homes.
"We can't imagine the pain and trauma this community has felt," said Rick Fontaine Leandry, MONSE's Coordinated Neighborhood Response Manager. "All we can do is be supportive. Listen and just be here for the long haul."
Resources for the community
Angel Salisbury said the resources that have poured in — employment, mental health counseling and more at tents lining 10th Street Tuesday — have made things better.
"This is definitely good for the community," Salisbury said. "I do feel safe because I see a lot of police presence here and a lot of people walking around," she told Hellgren.
Staff with the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) came to Brooklyn in South Baltimore after the violence and said they never left.
"We're bringing love and joy on a day that's probably going to be remembered for some pain," Leandry said. "It's really important to have this and have this and have so many resources where this time last year it wasn't present. This area has always called themselves the forgotten land, and we want them to know they're not forgotten. And we're showing them today at this event."
You can read the full statement from Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott here.
Remembering Aaliyah and Kylis
The journey has been tough for families of those touched by the horrific violence.
Aaliyah Gonzalez's mother made a tearful plea to Baltimore City leaders investigating the violence last September.
"Knowing that there were calls—endless calls—for help and no one showed up," Gonzalez said. "Knowing that Foxtrot—I now know the name of the helicopter—was hundreds of feet in the air and will tell you as they look down… that everything looks normal, what is your normal? I challenge you: What is your normal? Let them take each other out? Is that your normal?"
WJZ exclusively covered Kylis Fagbemi's funeral service.
Fagbemi, 20, was a forklift operator at Amazon and Kohl's who had big dreams of becoming a traveling ultrasound technician. He had recently signed up for a certification course, according to his family.
His nickname was Mooka, and his family said he loved video games, music, motorcycles and playing with his dogs.
At the funeral, his mother's cries filled the auditorium. She had to be steadied as she said her final goodbyes before the casket was closed.
Gonzalez had just graduated high school and was planning on attending college.
"I say this all the time, she taught me how to be a better mom," her mother Krystal Gonzalez said. "She taught me how to be a better person. There's a lot of things that I've learned from Aaliyah just through her sensitivity and compassion."
No arrests for murder, report documents failures
No one has been arrested for the murders, and the investigation remains open.
"We don't have enough evidence right now to be able to charge with the murder," Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said. "We just need that one break or somebody comes forward and says, 'Hey, saw the individual shoot one of the two people who lost their lives.'"
An after-action report revealed indifference and failures in the police response as the annual event turned out of control.
Three days beforehand, police intelligence uncovered a flyer that stated the annual Brooklyn Day block party was happening but did not act on the advance notice and had no one monitoring social media the day of the event.
Also, officers saw the party setting up but did not provide needed extra patrols as the crowds grew, swelling to as many as 900 people.
The report said two CitiWatch camera operators never notified supervisors of the growing party.
A third operator said something to a supervisor but that was two hours before the mass shooting and hundreds were already filling the area.
Police contend shifts were fully staffed but supervisors did not inspect the area as they should have.
They said the command staff asked for overtime instead of making the entire shift stay on duty as the crowd got bigger.
Police recently moved to discipline 12 employees, including recommending firing two of them.
Today, violence in the area is down, and many are no longer afraid to leave their home, but leaders acknowledge there's more work to do.
"Our message is we understand there's a long pathway to healing. We had such a tragic incident that happened a year ago, and it's not going to be resolved overnight," Leandry said. "But together, we can restore people's faith. We can help them heal and support them for the long haul."
Heroes of Harbor Hospital
WJZ also profiled the response at Medstar's Harbor Hospital, which treated more victims than any other.
"It was surreal. We were already very busy," Malkia Murray, a registered nurse, told Hellgren. "Someone came in and said they had been shot. It went from one person to repeatedly hearing, 'There's another! There's one more! There's two more coming!' That's how it started."
And for an hour, people kept driving patients to the emergency room. One almost crashed into the doors in a panic.
"Once they said four more are coming, maybe a couple minutes passed by, and they were like three more are coming and it just kept going on and on," said physician assistant Mohammad Faisal.
He said some patients who were already there volunteered to give up their own beds.
"They kind of realized what was going on, and I don't think I've ever had patients volunteering to give up their room," he said.
Dr. Alfie Mingo, who has spent eight years at Harbor, called it "unprecedented" in his career.
"I've never experienced 19 people coming in with gunshot wounds. And a lot of them had more than one gunshot wound. It wasn't like they were just single shots. Some of them had two or three. I know it's something that will stick with us for a very long time," Mingo said.
"It's painful"
On the anniversary of the tragedy, Arlene Gregory with a local ministry, is still praying for those touched by the tragedy.
"They came out for a party like this and in just that second, her life was gone, same with his. I have sons, and I know young men his age. It's painful," Gregory said. "It's a painful situation—we pray and hope that we don't have to see anything like that again."