Community activists try to address gun violence as homicide rate reaches 300 mark
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore has seen 300 homicides in 2022—a number that the city has repeatedly reached for eight years in a row.
There have been at least two more murders in Baltimore over the weekend. A man was killed on Spelman Road in Cherry Hill on Saturday night.
Another man was killed on St. Benedict Street in Southwest Baltimore on Sunday afternoon.
Those murders bring Baltimore's homicide count over 300.
Although the Baltimore Police Department hasn't updated its tally of homicide investigations, the local police union has addressed the grim number in a statement.
Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Union President Michael Mancuso said in the statement that the police department does not have enough officers to handle the city's large number of homicides.
Mancuso said the city's police department is short-staffed and has lost 170 more officers than they hired this year.
The police union president called on residents to vote in new leadership that will prioritize public safety.
Some of Baltimore's citizens have rallied against city violence.
For example, community activists gathered at an event hosted by the Tendea Family on Sunday night called "Our Youth Die, while we stand by."
"I want to be here today so we can strengthen that partnership, strengthen our ability to be creative and come up with solutions now," Walker Gladden, who works at the Rose Street Community Center, said.
The group tried to come up with ways to prevent gun violence against young people.
Their collective endeavor comes on the heels of the murder of 13-year-old Kelsey Washington.
She was an innocent bystander who was shot in the head earlier this month.
Washington died last week after being in the hospital for seven days.
"What made me even more sad is that it's Kelsey today and it'll be someone else tomorrow, the next month, next year, unless we switch the culture that is perpetuating violence in our community," Tendea Family founder Elijah Miles said.
The Tendea Family hopes hosting this small gathering will have a larger impact and get more people involved.
"I'm hoping that we can not only just come together for this moment, but we can take this moment and bring it into our families, bring it into the neighborhood, to the boys on the corner that really need it, bring it to the girls that need models and mentors," Miles said.
The police department updates and shares the number of homicides in the city every weekday.
On Friday, the department reported that there had been 299 homicides. It is expected to provide an updated number on Monday morning.