Baltimore Councilman calls for 'immediate arrest' in Canton armed robbery killing
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen is stepping up to support the heartbroken family of Fabian Sanchez-Gonzalez as they wait for justice in his killing.
There have been no arrests made in the days after 23-year-old Gonzalez was shot during an armed robbery at the T-Mobile store in Canton, which is where he worked until the day he died.
Also, police have not released surveillance video in the case.
"I would always tell him to be careful," the victim's mother told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren in her first interview. "He would always say, 'It's my job.' I ask the governor that I want justice for my son."
Through tears, the victim's brother also demanded justice.
"We want to see these two people in jail for what they did no matter if they're juveniles or adults," he told Hellgren. "They know the consequences."
Some of the employees who work at the stores in the shopping center on Boston Street have told WJZ that they're concerned after several robberies in recent months. One restaurant manager said her business was broken into twice.
WJZ investigated the numbers. According to the Baltimore Police Department's crime map, there have been 528 crimes committed in Canton within the past year. That includes 20 commercial robberies, five shootings and eight carjackings.
Around the area where Fabian was killed—the stretch of Boston Street between the 2400 block and the 2600 block—there have been eight commercial robberies and five aggravated assaults in the past 365 days.
"There have been issues with break-ins," said Zeke Cohen, who represents the community on the city council and wants police to be more visible.
"One of the things I've been pushing not just in our district but elsewhere in the city is for officers to be out of their cars, engaging with community in the neighborhoods because that's where we want to see them," he said outside of Baltimore City Hall Wednesday.
Cohen met with Fabian's family and called for the police to quickly solve the case.
"It is critically important that the people who did this be held fully accountable and then be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," he said. "It is simply heartless and unconscionable to go into a store, rob it and then—on the way out—shoot the clerk who is just working there. My message to BPD is clear: We need an immediate arrest in this case. Folks need to be held accountable. The justice system needs to hold justice for Fabian and his family."
Chone noted that the callous crime "was a cold-blooded and tragic murder in our city."
"The young man who was killed did not deserve to die," he said.
Gonzalez's former middle school, St. Ignatius Loyola Academy, posted a tribute to him. The school asked for people to remember him in their prayers and shared his childhood pictures.
"They took him in the worst way possible," his mother said of her son's killers as she prepared to say her final farewell.
Anyone with tips can call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-Lockup.
