'Violence is not the way': Community group speaks out after nine shot within hours in Baltimore

BALTIMORE - Nine people were shot within hours into Wednesday morning in Baltimore City.

According to police, there were two triple shootings and a double shooting, among four Baltimore shootings that started around 7 p.m. Tuesday.

As Baltimore police looks for those responsible, the violence highlights the city's biggest issue on the minds of residents.

At the location of one of those shootings, WJZ came across a group who is working to solve what they believe is the root cause of these crimes.

"Look, there is a different way, there is a better way," said Peter Griffin, a volunteer with "Help Up Mission. "Violence is not the way, it's just not the way."

Around 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, a shooting happened on North Montford Avenue where two men in their 20s and a 14-year-old were injured.

Four hours later, in South Baltimore, there was another triple shooting dollar store on Potee Street that sent two women in their 30s and 32-year-old man to the hospital.

A man who talked to WJZ off camera said that is area frequented by the homeless and drug addicts, and that the shooting was over an argument about money.

Volunteers from "Help Up Mission," whose bus stops every Wednesday to help people in need, was out assisting just feet away where three people were shot.

"It only emboldens us to come out more, because you know and I know that these situations occur because people find themselves in such hopeless situations where they have accepted this way of living," Griffin said. "We're out here to change that."

"Help Up Mission" is filled with volunteers who attend a local church and many of them are formers drug abusers, or have been touched by gun violence, at some point in their life.

They serve those very same people offering case management, recovery services, food and hygiene kits.

"We come out here knowing that, guess what, we were out here too," volunteer Carolyn Stanley said. "We didn't care about death, all we cared about was where was our next fix, where was our next hit."

After the shooting on Potee Street, around 1 a.m., a 31-year-old man was shot on Ramsay Street.

And four minutes later, in Northeast Baltimore along Hillen Road, a 19 and 20-year-old were shot, and are expected to survive.

The efforts to solve gun violence in Baltimore is a problem many believe rooted through moral decay in the community.

"We can still love each other enough that we don't have to kill each other, but we can help each other try and turn our lives around," Stanley said. "Because when you get trapped in this, this is not easy."

"And sometimes I think that's what we're missing, we're trying to paint and build before we fix it from the inside," Griffin said.

Police said the nine shooting victims are all expected to be survive.