BALTIMORE — A Baltimore organization working to uplift our city’s youth is now mourning the loss of their own.
Neal Mack, 17, was shot and killed at the Inner Harbor over the weekend.
He was one of several people shot since Friday. A 17-year-old female was injured in the same shooting as Mack.
In an Instagram post on social media, the founder of the Tendea Family in Baltimore described 17-year-old Neal Mack as a “leader” and a teenager with great “potential."
Tendea Family’s founder Elijah Miles expressed his anger on social media after learning Mack, one of the organization’s youth interns, was shot and killed at the Inner Harbor Saturday.
Baltimore police said it happened around 7:30 p.m.
Miles said Mack will not die in vain with the organization recommitting itself to providing more resources and training for the city’s youth.
“We will go all out to gather all the resources we need to serve youth that enter our program,” he said in a post you can read here.
Mayor Brandon Scott reacted to Mack’s murder, saying a deeper conversation is needed about what’s fueling the violence.
“What we have to understand is that when we talk about violence in Baltimore, and in this country, we have to have a deeper conversation than we’ve been having for the time that I’ve been alive, and understanding that the access to guns, the ignoring the symptoms and the mental health and behavioral health, they’re ignoring the disinvestment and poverty in this country, all of that has led to where we our today,” Scott said.
MORE: Teen killed in Inner Harbor double shooting identified
Christina Kelly, who has lived in Baltimore for two decades, shares the same perspective as Mayor Scott.
“It is more than just the crime itself. It is an actual systematic issue of education and opportunity in our city for our youth,” Kelly said.
Will Greene, who works at the Inner Harbor, said there are no easy answers to solve the crime problem. In order to fix it, he thinks it’s going to take a collective effort.
“We definitely have a problem and I think we all have to work together to fix it," Greene said.
Mayor Scott is also calling on everyone in the city to come together to help reduce violence in Baltimore.
He also said that he will make sure that the person responsible for Mack’s murder and other shootings across the city will be brought to justice.
"Our detectives are going to go out, find out who committed these acts of violence, particularly against this young man and young lady at the Inner Harbor," Scott said.
