BALTIMORE, Md. — The Monday morning commute had not yet come to an end when someone gunned down a man and critically wounded a woman—-both in their thirties, on Delano Court in Gilmor Homes.
The man died just inside his doorway a short distance away from where children pass the summer in the community swimming pool.
“It’s crazy out here,” said Matthew Johnson, “The conversations that these guys are having. The conversations are amazing, because it’s about shootings, killings. You know. It’s just another conversation.”
Children forced to shake off the loss of a man that tried to engage them with fatherly advice in a community where that can be hard to come by.
“He stopped by everyday and talked to some of the kids that was around and made jokes with them and told them what they need to do to change their lives around and do the right stuff,” said a woman who wants to remain nameless that works with the children.
Some of those who knew the victim say he was trying to turn his life around and he had recently secured a place here that he could finally call his own.
For now, information surrounding the double shooting is as scant as the few items left outside the man’s home marking his violent end—a fragment of crime scene tape, a crumpled flower and some miniature candles, but hope remains for others devoted to giving children here a better future.
“What I want to do for the kids is to actually give them an outlet, and not just an outlet, but the proper guidance,” said Johnson, “because even if you give them and outlet and things to do, if they don’t have the proper guidance as far as life and how to control themselves and be who they are properly, it still doesn’t mix well.”
