Outrage Grows As 100+ Young Victims Caught In Crossfire Over 2 Years
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A beautiful September 2016 evening in East Baltimore turned to terror as gunshots rang out at Greenmount and East Preston, littering the street with bullets and bodies.
The youngest victim, 3-year-old Kendall Brockenbrough, was in her father's arms when she was shot in the leg.
Eight people were caught in the crossfire that day, Kendall and her dad among them. To this day, no one has been arrested, no one has been charged.
RELATED: Police: 8 People Shot in East Baltimore, Including 3-Year-Old
Kendall's mother Lekya Missouri is outraged, like so many others in the community.
"I am beyond angry," she said. "She's three! I am beyond angry."
Several times a week, she watches as her little girl undergoes intense rehab to heal her tiny leg, torn apart by a bullet.
"I don't know what happened down there, I don't know why it happened down there, but I want to know who is responsible for my daughter," Lekya says.
And Kendall isn't alone. In 2014, 3-year-old McKenzie Elliott was killed by a stray bullet right in front of her house.
And last year, a 10-year-old boy is shot while walking into an East Baltimore Family Dollar store to buy juice. Innocent victims of out of control gun violence on city streets.
"This is not western days, we're not in Iraq, we're not at war, so why?" Missouri asks.
City police tell WJZ that since 2015, 41 children and teens have died in shootings. And more than 100 were shot, like Kendall, and survived.
Missouri says, if she could talk to Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, "I would ask him, what are you doing... for your people?"
WJZ's Denise Koch asked Davis if he thinks Missouri has reason to hope that the shooting of her child will be solved.
"Absolutely," Davis said. "We know that if we pay attention to those violent, repeat offenders who are very prone to kill again, to shoot again, to harm other people again, that we can get them off the streets a lot faster."
But with more than 100 young victims in the past two-and-a-half years, outrage is growing.
Mayor Catherine Pugh says enough if enough.
"You can no longer continue to do this," she says. "You will be found, you will be caught, people's lives are valuable."
Davis agrees.
"It's not acceptable for the vulnerable folks in our society to get caught in the crossfire and it immediately becomes a priority for the Baltimore Police Department to find out who's responsible for that violence," he says.
Police tell WJZ they will not give up searching for the people responsible for shooting Kendall. She can now walk, and is still receiving care and undergoing physical therapy at Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital.
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