Local Outreach Members March Through Baltimore To Stop The Violence
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Two men shot and another stabbed in Baltimore in just two hours. Community members are taking a new stand against violence, going one on one with troubled young men.
Monique Griego has more on the latest efforts to combat crime.
This time organizers took a much smaller group. There were no police or politicians.
A deadly start to the summer in Baltimore City has community members teaming up and suiting up to try and stop the violence.
"I'm from the streets. I've been incarcerated. I've been on these corners in my younger days," said Munir Bahar, COR Community organizer.
Munir Bahar is the leader of COR, a local outreach program. Friday night, he and dozens of other members gathered for an anti-violence march in the toughest parts of East Baltimore.
Earlier this month, a 300 man march paraded down North Avenue. But this group is taking a different approach.
"Without the police escorts, without the really large crowds," said Robert Drowos, COR Community Group.
Bahar plans to speak to young men in these neighborhoods one on one.
"We're going right to them. Right where they hang out on the corners," said Bahar.
COR's march comes at a time when police are also using a new tactic. The department's naming of Baltimore's "Public Enemy No. 1" has led to the arrest of two accused killers.
Friday night, detectives also captured Troy Keene. They say he gunned down a man on Bennett Place--a street so deadly, it was closed off to prevent future violence.
Bahar believes his form of outreach can help curb these types of killings.
"To have these young guys who used to be in the streets out here now marching with us is a testament to that type of work. That type of direct engagement," he said.
Although the group did not want police marching with them, officers were on hand from a distance in case anything happened.
In Friday night's stabbing, a person of interest has been taken into custody. No arrest yet in either of the shootings.
