Vigil Held For Phylicia Barnes At City Hall
BALTIMORE (WJZ)— Fighting the violence. A crowd shows up outside City Hall on Thursday night to call for an end to senseless murders in Baltimore, like the death of North Carolina honors student Phylicia Barnes.
Mike Hellgren has the unfolding investigation.
More than 50 people turned out in front of City Hall to remember Phylicia Barnes as police continue to search for the suspect who killed the teenager.
"While it's important to have vigils, it's important to light candles, it's certainly incredibly important to pray every day for our city to get better, it really is about the work of it. Getting people to dedicate themselves to make their neighborhoods safer by speaking out and speaking up and helping us. We can't do this alone," said Commissioner Fred Bealefeld, Baltimore City Police.
The vigil comes one day after the medical examiner announcement that Barnes' murder was a homicide.
Police say they know how she died but are not yet releasing that information.
"They want to limit the amount of information because they want to have control over the types of tips they get in. Also to rule out possible suspects," said criminologist Jeffrey Ian Ross.
Teams and detectives and state police are working together on this case at city police headquarters.
There will be a local memorial service for Barnes on May 14 at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in northeast Baltimore. Barnes' body has been released to her loved ones. Her funeral will be Saturday in Georgia.
