Baltimore police arrest 16-year-old suspect in Federal Hill attempted murder, robbery
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore police arrested a 16-year-old suspect and charged him with attempted murder after a shooting and robbery at the edge of Federal Hill two weeks ago.
The victim, a 62-year-old man, was treated for his injuries after the December 2 shooting.
The brazen crime happened just after 2:30 p.m.
A neighbor told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren he saw a large police response.
"The entire block up there was blocked off. I was trying to get to the highway, and there were multiple fire trucks," said Joe, who lives just a few homes from the shooting and asked us not to use his last name. "16-year-olds should be in school on a Friday around that time. It's sad—but it's not the craziest thing I've heard."
Detectives with the warrant apprehension unit took the teen into custody in Northwest Baltimore. He was processed at Central Booking.
Police have not provided details about how they tracked down the suspect.
Most non-fatal shootings are not solved. The clearance rate in Baltimore City for 2022 is just below 23 percent.
At a city council hearing Thursday, police said in the Southern District where the attempted murder happened, shootings remained the same as last year at 84. Homicides spiked from 41 to 51.
Citywide, police took more guns off the streets in 2022. They have made more than 1,600 gun-related arrests this year. That is a 20 percent increase over 2021.
"The men and women of the Baltimore Police Department got more guns off the street this year than when we had 600 more officers in 2014," Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said Thursday. "…We took an exponentially higher number of guns off the street and made more arrests for those guns than we did when we actually had 600 more cops to do the same work. I could not be more proud of that effort. Why is it not translating into some other reduction? Well, that's a long conversation to have on another day."
At the hearing, police leadership did face criticism that officers need to be more engaged.
"What I hear and see too often now is folks have a sense that many of our officers are disengaged, and there is too much sitting in the car," said city council member Zeke Cohen. "There's too much on the cell phone. There's too much just a lack of interactions, lack of engagement. I know that you all are pushing foot patrol. I know that you are pushing business checks, but my concern is that it's not translating all the way down the chain."
In the wake of the violence on Hamburg Street, those who live here hope for a safer community.
"They're under a lot of scrutinies and rightfully so for a lot of things," Joe said. "At the same time, we can't just ignore that there is a crime problem. So for city leaders, it's a tough job to balance the two but obviously, there's work that needs to be done when we've got stuff like this happening."
