Baltimore City Officials, Police, Residents Urge People To Put Guns Down For Ceasefire Weekend

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Violence plaguing Baltimore streets as Charm City surpasses more than 200 murders this year. Baltimore leaders are out in the community to push for more peace.

It's a weekend of more calls to end the gun violence in Baltimore City, called Ceasefire Weekend. It asks people to put the guns down and go a full weekend without violence.

Even so, a man was shot this afternoon in south Baltimore.

That's why advocates and city officials say these ceasefire weekend events are so important to combat these shootings and hopefully being an end to it.

"Ceasefire is a movement of folks who really want to help not just on these weekends but bring peace, the work of peace work, the movement of peace work to Baltimore," Mayor Brandon Scott said.

Scott and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison along with members of the group Baltimore Ceasefire 365 are taking to the streets this weekend to discourage gun violence throughout the city and are pleading for peace.

"It is never necessary to put that kind of footprint on your own journey where you took somebody else's life," said Erricka Bridgeford, cofounder of Baltimore Ceasefire 365.

City police say more than 200 people have been killed so far this year and there've now been over 400 non-fatal shootings, up from the same time last year.

The mayor says it's events like this that are important to bring the community together to push the violence down along with other steps in his crime plan.

"It's about making sure that we, yes, hold people accountable, deal with the flow of guns that are coming in, targeting those individuals, making sure they are dealt with in the criminal justice system," Scott said.

There are still plenty of ways to take get involved in the ceasefire peace challenge with events and prayers continuing Sunday. To find out how to get involved, visit baltimoreceasefire.com.

In:
• Baltimore City
• Crime