Baltimore's Annual Homicide Count Hits 300 Again, 2nd Ceasefire Planned
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- As the annual homicide rate for Baltimore has reached 300 for the third year in a row, another ceasefire is being planned for this weekend.
The number of homicides shot up to 344 in 2015, the year Freddie Gray was fatally injured in police custody, and 318 people were killed last year. Before 2015, Baltimore had not exceeded 300 annual homicides since 1999.
The first 72-hour ceasefire of the year was scheduled for August 4 through August 6, but two people were gunned down that weekend within city limits.
Once again, events are planned around the city this weekend in an effort to help curb the violence.
"We're doing ceasefires quarterly because we saw what the first one did, how much hope it gave the city," Erricka Bridgeford, one of the event's founders, told our media partners at the Baltimore Sun.
Among the events scheduled are a poetry slam, a candlelight vigil and "Sacred Space Saturday. For that event, people are being encouraged to place a balloon or something visible at the space where their loved one was killed.
Three homicides in the span of two hours Thursday night in Baltimore City has pushed the yearly total to 300.
City police say a 31-year-old man died at an area hospital after being found with gunshot wounds in the 5400 block of Moores Run Road at about 7:20 p.m.
About 20 minutes later, officers responded to the 200 block of South Collins Avenue where they found another 31-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds and also died at a local hospital.
Then about an hour later, detectives responded to the 700 block of Mura Street where they found a woman inside a vacant house with a gunshot wound to her upper body. She later died from her injuries at a local hospital.
The violent start to November comes after an average of one person per day was killed in October.
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