BALTIMORE — Homicides in Baltimore are impacting people all over the city and county. Now, some families who recently lost loved ones are urging city leaders to increase their efforts to change the violence.
Losing a loved on to gun violence is never an easy wound to recover from. Wednesday, families trying hard to heal stood outside Baltimore City Police headquarters begging community leaders to do something different to stop the killings.
Donna Ashe-Spriggs is the grandmother of 16-year-old Deanta Dorsey. Dorsey was one of five teenagers shot across from Edmondson Westside High School in early January.
Dorsey was the only one who died.
RELATED: Five high school students shot at Edmondson Village Shopping Center
“Somebody has to put a stop to this, all these children. Children killing children murders after murders please help us,” Ashe-Spriggs said.
It’s a cry to city and state leaders as loved ones are constantly in sorrow because of the blood shed on Baltimore City streets.
“They took his life. They took the wrong one and I will not rest until justice is done for Deanta Dorsey, and every other person that’s killed and violated in the city,” Ashe-Spriggs said.
Jamar Day is another person who lost a loved one to gun violence. His uncle, 56-year-old Al Stevenson, was killed inside a BP Gas station in Northeast Baltimore last December.
RELATED: Community members want gas station shut down after a man was killed inside
“If you go past there right now, the glass is still gone from where my uncle was shot and killed at,” Day said.
Now Day’s family and others in that community are petitioning to get the establishment shut down. But he said Wednesday morning, a meeting with city police was postponed with no future date confirmed.
Now he feels like they’ve been given the runaround when it comes to discussing their concerns with city leaders.
“Baltimore City Police Department, Baltimore city administration is playing games with the people of Baltimore. Do liquor store owners have more power, do gas station owners have more power, or do the community have more power,” Day asked.
Dorsey’s family had similar concerns when it comes to voicing their concerns about people being held accountable for these homicides.
“This has to stop. What is a Baltimore City Police Department the detectives doing to capture these killers,” Ashe-Spriggs asked.
Today, in a juvenile justice hearing at city hall, leaders discussed some issues involving youth violence. They also talked about the challenges often present in the criminal justice system with minors getting back on the streets after being arrested.
“Many of them are being released either no bond, low bond, with no sense of rehabilitation, no sense of supervision to change them to keep them from doing again what they just got caught doing,” Commissioner Harrison said.
And the families impacted by violence are begging for something to be done differently within the judicial system to change this culture of violence in the city.
“Please get the killers off the street, it’s all that I’m pleading, pleading before they kill again,” Ashe-Spriggs said.
