BALTIMORE — Another shooting in Baltimore---this time outside a senior apartment building on the southside, and the poor woman critically injured in the exchange never saw it coming.
"She lives in this building,” said Veronica Walker. “She just moved into this building three months ago, and so it was nothing like somebody retaliating on her or nothing. She just came to smoke a cigarette (and) didn't know they were having a shootout out here... shooting at each other. She didn't know that."
In a city hardened by gun violence, this one at 11:30 in the morning on Monday involving a defenseless woman stands out.
"Oddly enough when we got there, we found a victim that we really don't see every day---a 73-year-old woman was found suffering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen,” said Det. Donny Moses of the Baltimore Police Department. “She was taken to an area hospital, and as it stands, she's in critical condition."
While the victim's neighbors realize this could have happened to any of them and chock it up to fate and poor timing...
"There were running down the street firing, shooting at each other, and she had come out to smoke a cigarette and got shot in the crossfire,” said Walker. “That's all that happened."
In this case, it appears police benefited from being within earshot of the shooting to call for an ambulance and to begin their search for a suspect.
"Our detectives were pretty much in the area when the shots rang out,” said Moses. “They heard the shots and they were able to detain the witnesses before they got away. Of course, here in Baltimore, finding witnesses and getting people to want to talk is quite a task, but they were in the right place for the most part at the right time and they stopped individuals before they were able to leave the area."
If you have any information, which could help police in this case, you're asked to call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
