Baltimore City Council committee to meet over crime reduction, violence prevention
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore City councilmembers will meet Wednesday to discuss crime prevention in the city as police continue to investigate the mass shooting that took place at Brooklyn Homes on July 2.
The Baltimore City Council's Public Safety and Government Operations Committee will hold the oversight hearing at 1 p.m., according to city officials.
The hearing will allow lawmakers to question representatives of the Baltimore Police Department, staff at the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, and other agency officials about the progress they are or are not making to reduce and prevent crime.
Statistics provided by the Baltimore Police Department show that there were 492 non-fatal shootings in 2022 and, so far, 438 non-fatal shootings in 2023. As for homicides, there were 234 murder investigations in 2022. To date, there have been 185 in 2023.
Councilmembers Mark Conway, Kristerfer Burnett, Zeke Cohen, Eric Costello, Antonio Glover, Phylicia Porter, and Odette Ramos will attend the hearing.
One of the biggest crimes in the city took place at Brooklyn Homes in South Baltimore. That's where gunfire killed 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi and 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez, injuring 28 others.
During a hearing following the shooting, lawmakers discovered that the Baltimore Police Department did not adjust its resources after learning the large-scale party was taking place or receiving 911 calls about it earlier in the night.
Recently released 911 tapes show that people frantically called for help but didn't get it right away. WJZ's media partner the Baltimore Banner obtained the 911 tapes via a public records request.
Some of the calls stretched up to 10 minutes long with the callers reporting that they had seen no sign of the police or ambulances.
"They need to hurry the **** up. 911 is a ***ing joke in this town, yo," one woman can be heard saying on one of the calls.
To date, Baltimore Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy who was also a victim of the mass shooting.
The teen is facing gun charges and has not been connected to the two murders attempted murders.
More recently, Baltimore Police announced the arrest of 18-year-old Tristan Brian Jackson. He faces seven counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted first-degree murder, and 41 related charges, police said.
Police said Jackson was on GPS monitoring for an unrelated matter at the time of the shooting. The GPS information corroborates Jackson's presence at the party and at the shooting.
Two additional hearings will be held in September. There will be another oversight hearing on Sept. 13 and one with the Baltimore City Fire Department on Sept. 20, city officials said.