Frightened Neighbors Demand Action After 70-Year-Old Woman Murdered In Northwest Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Many were stunned in the Northwest Baltimore community where a 70-year-old woman was found shot over and over again outside a rowhome in the 5000-block of Queensberry Avenue near Pimlico.

Bullet holes pierced the back windows, and police closed off an alley while they investigated. The home backs up to Queensbury Park and is just blocks from Pimlico Race Course.

Police confirmed the woman's body was found just outside her back door.

"Coming home from work and there's a murder right next door to you, it makes you scared. It makes me scared. This is ridiculous," the victim's neighbor, who declined to give her name, told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. "She never comes out. She never bothers anybody. The only time I see her is when she puts her trash out. She'll speak and go back in the house. That's it. I can't imagine why someone would want to kill her. That woman don't bother nobody. Nobody!"

Mayor Brandon Scott called for people to come forward to close this case. He spoke to Hellgren just hours after the body was discovered.

"This one really hits home to me. That block is where some of my closest friends grew up. I stood on that block many days. My first thing is to the person or persons who did that: You are a coward, you are a scum and we will find you. We will hold you accountable," the mayor said.

Police said they were called to do a welfare check around 10 a.m. Thursday when they found the 70-year-old unresponsive. Police Commissioner Michael Harrison was on the scene as the body was being removed.

"That block does not tolerate that kind of activity against anyone especially their seniors, even though this is a neighborhood that we know has had struggles over the years. I talked to the police commissioner right before coming here with you, and we are going to be working as we have done, closing 58 percent of the homicide cases this year, to bring that person to justice," Mayor Scott told Hellgren.

It has been a violent 24 hours in Baltimore—with five people shot in a one-hour period Wednesday night. That includes a mass shooting on the 1900-block of N. Dukeland Street that claimed one life.

Rushern Baker, the former Prince George's County Executive who is running for governor, called on Governor Larry Hogan to declare a state of emergency over the violence.

"It is unacceptable to have five shootings last night and no one pays attention to it. They treat it as business as usual," Baker said.

In:
• Shooting
• Maryland
• Baltimore
• Baltimore City
• Crime