BALTIMORE — Mayor Brandon Scott, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and law enforcement leaders discussed their mission on Wednesday to slow violent crime in Baltimore.
Gun violence, murders, shootings have been a major concern in Baltimore for years.
According to worldpopulationreview.com, Baltimore has the second highest murder rate in the country.
As of Wednesday evening, Baltimore City has had 233 murder investigations in 2022.
At the same moment, on Wednesday, state and city leaders were holding a joint press conference in Baltimore, seven people were shot seven miles away in Northwest Baltimore.
One person was killed in the apparent drive-by shooting at the intersection of Park Heights and Shirley avenues.
"I was standing at the podium with the mayor, with the governor, with the Attorney General and the heads of our federal agents, head of the state police," Baltimore City Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said. "We were talking about initiatives to better fight crime at the federal and state level when this came out, and now we are here. That's why i am making this appeal because people usually know what happened and people usually know who did it."
A press conference was schedule for 12 p.m. Wednesday at Tench Tilghman Community Park, on N. Patterson Park Avenue, headlined by Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erke Barron, Attorney General Brian Frosh, Harrison and Maryland State Police Superintendent Colonel Woodrow "Jerry" Jones III.
The meeting was in reference to resources and strategiesto fight violent crime at the state and local levels, and joining efforts.
Then, around 12:20 p.m., police said two people pulled up in a silver 2016 Lexus and began shooting.
"In broad daylight, the brazenness of these offenders to pull up, get out of a car and open fire on a group of people minding their business, it's unconscionable," Harrison said. That's very brazen, very cowardly. We need to find who did this as fast as possible so we can hold them accountable for the carnage and the harm, not just what they did to these seven individuals, but what they did to this community."
In August alone, there was a seven-person shooting and a quadruple shooting. There have also been 19 murders this month.
“It is utterly impossible for a city to thrive when residents do not feel safe in their neighborhoods,” Scott said. "That's why tackling violent crime is and will be my biggest challenge, and my top priority."
Mayor Scott said it's collaborative efforts that supports his Comprehensive Violence Prevention plan aimed to have safer streets in Baltimore City.
“We are united in our mission to reduce violent crime and get individuals involved in that crime off our streets,” Scott said.
Mayor Scott's Comprehensive Violence Prevention plan is a multifaceted approach to reducing crime using an ecosystem composed of city leaders, police, hospital professionals all coming together to tackle the public health epidemic.
At the press conference, the Maryland General Assembly passed Governor Larry Hogan’s allocation of $3.5 million to support 14 additional Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys, 10 additional investigators, five data analysts, and four legal support personnel, with the support of Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. The hiring process for those positions has already begun in the Attorney General’s Office and several Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys have already started to combat violent crime on behalf of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. Attorney Barron announced that the newly established Violent and Organized Crime Section is being expanded by the 30 new state-funded positions. In addition, U.S. Attorney Barron has encouraged prosecutors to use all available resources to investigate and prosecute repeat violent offenders—specifically to look at any wrongdoing that meets office priorities, including COVID-19 CARES Act fraud, in particular unemployment insurance fraud, Paycheck Protection Program fraud, Economic Injury Disaster Loan fraud, and utilizing a federal school zone statute that makes it a crime to possess a gun within 1000 feet of a school.
