Some Asking City Leaders To Issue State Of Emergency
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Violence in Baltimore continues to surge, with at least three more shootings Friday night -- one of them fatal. The number of victims just keeps climbing.
Now some are asking city leaders to call in backup from other police departments.
Christie Ileto with the proposed solution.
The blood bath continues. The 4000 block of Belvedere Avenue -- a 19-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the chest. It's the latest homicide in Baltimore.
"'Boom, boom, boom.' It wasn't no, 'Pop, pop' like firecrackers. It was a big gun," one man said.
By late Friday, there have been almost 100 shootings -- 39 homicides -- this month. Even children are becoming collateral damage.
"That's a seven-year-old baby who was shot in the head. That was a mom who was shot," said Commissioner Anthony Batts, Baltimore City Police Department.
Detectives are chasing leads in a gruesome double homicide in Southwest Baltimore.
The surge in violence started in the weeks following the April riots sparked by the controversial arrest and death of Freddie Gray in Sandtown.
"We'd like to meet with the commissioner himself," said Rev. Andrew Foster Connors, BUILD co-chair.
Activists are pleading for Commissioner Batts and the mayor to issue a state of emergency.
"We're talking about mayhem right now on the streets of Baltimore, and we need our leaders to stand up and react to that mayhem with the kind of resources that we need to bring calm and order back to a number of our neighborhoods," said Rev. Connors.
The police union says criminals are taking advantage of the situation and that officers are afraid of going to jail for doing their jobs.
"It's like they got a green light to do what they're doing. It's nothing being done. The police presence, it's not even what it was," said Gregory Marshbum, Safe Streets Mondawmin.
Groups like Safe Streets protest the carnage at crime scenes that continue to be all too common across the city.
Anyone with information about any of these shootings is asked to contact police.
