Mother's Day Weekend 'Cease-Fire' Begins In Baltimore After 103rd Homicide Thursday Night
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A 72-hour "Cease-Fire" Mother's Day weekend is beginning in Baltimore.
The call comes following Baltimore's 103rd homicide victim.
On Thursday night, police said a man was found on Litchfield Ave. shot multiple times. He later died at the hospital.
"I heard right here in the alley," Allen Smith said. "I know the young guy since he was a baby."
Homicide detectives scanned the scene on Friday morning. Neighbors tell WJZ that they live in fear.
"It's a scary thing," Sunse Ray said. "You can't come out any time of the night. You can't do anything."
Through the first nine days of May, more than two dozen people have been shot citywide, including two young children.
The ATF and Metro Crime Stoppers are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for last Friday's shooting of a 1- and 2-year-old, their mother and two other men.
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"Somebody else killing somebody is not bringing nobody back," Smith said. "All this killing is senseless and it ain't making you no money. It's making you a target."
Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence is partnering with students at Liberty Elementary School, Baltimore Ceasefire and the Kevin L. Cooper Foundation on Friday to create a peace quilt.
"Some of these children are experiencing great loss within their homes, within seeing loss of their community," Greta Willis said.
The event is part of the larger Baltimore Ceasefire weekend. The initiative's goal is for the city to go for three days without a shooting, stabbing or any other kind of violence.
Organizers said they hope Mother's Day weekend appeals to people to stop shooting.
"Everybody you look at has someone who died in their family; me, her," Ray said. "There's no person you can look at."
So far in 2019, year to date, Baltimore City has had four more homicides and 45 more shootings than 2018.
Last year, the city recorded more than 300 homicides for the fourth straight year.