Loved Ones Remember Woman Killed In Baltimore As Homicides Surge More Than 30%
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A new $8,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in the killing of 70-year-old Linda Dennis.
Her home in the 5000-block of Queensberry Avenue near Pimlico was riddled with bullets. Police found her dead outside just after 10 a.m. Thursday following a welfare check.
Governor Larry Hogan said, "This is heartbreaking and outrageous. This crisis has reached a tipping point and there must be immediate action taken to stop the senseless violence."
Just after 9 p.m. Thursday, police found 50-year-old Monique Billinger shot dead in the 1300-block of N. Mount Street in West Baltimore.
Tributes to her have poured in on social media, and friends told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren she was a caring woman who will be sorely missed.
Bernard Morgan is among them. He coaches at Ben Franklin and Reginald F. Lewis High Schools. "I didn't really believe it first," he told Hellgren. "I know that she loved to sing. I know that she loved going to church. She was a good person. She didn't deserve to die like that."
Morgan posted on Facebook that he was at a loss for words. The two used to sing together in the Douglass High choir.
"It's tough. I just pray for her family. I know she's up there singing in heaven now. I know she loved music so when I'm singing, I'll be thinking of her," Morgan said.
Baltimore police also announced they arrested a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old for the killing of 21-year-old Ronald Boone.
He was shot in early February in Northeast Baltimore.
"We have to be better in every facet, and we will do that. We will make adjustments. We'll make changes just as every city across the country that is dealing with a rise in violence is doing," Mayor Brandon Scott told WJZ Thursday.
As of Friday afternoon, Baltimore had recorded 59 homicides in 2022. That compares to 45 at this time last year.
The city recorded 117 non-fatal shootings. There were 92 at this time in 2021.
