BALTIMORE — Baltimore City Police are investigating a shooting that left a teen injured after being shot just before noon on Tuesday.
At approximately 11:44 a.m., officers were dispatched to the 1600 block of Mount Royal Avenue in Baltimore's central district to investigate a reported shooting. Officers arrived at the location and observed a 17-year-old male suffering from non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
Witnesses tell WMAR, the teenager was a squeegee worker, cleaning windows before the shooting occurred. "I heard pow, pow, pow," said one witness who asked to remain anonymous.
"I look down the street and saw him in the street hollering and screaming."
People in the area say the victim was cleaning windows at the Mount Royal exit at North Avenue when three males exited a car that had already passed the victim and began firing at him.
"I was wondering why somebody would do that," said Ronald Kearney. "Normally there’s four squeegee guys over there but there was only two which tells me they were gunning for him."
Witnesses described three males getting out of a black sedan with their faces covered.
After the shooting, the car, possibly an Infiniti was seen driving west on North Avenue. The teen is expected to be okay.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Central District Shooting detectives, at 410-396-2411. Those who wish to remain anonymous can utilize the Metro Crime Stoppers tip line, at 1-866-7LOCKUP. You can also submit an anonymous online text-tip to Metro Crime Stoppers by visiting the MCS website.
WMAR-2 News reached out to Mayor Brand Scott regarding the shooting. Mayor Brandon M. Scott issued the following statement regarding the recent violence:
I am deeply frustrated by the amount of young people who have been victims of violence in our city, especially in recent days. We have seen a 10-year-old shot in the chest, a 12-year-old shot in the arm, and a 17-year-old shot in a public intersection. There is nothing harder than talking to a parent whose child has become a victim of violence. My heart goes out to all of the young people, parents and loved ones impacted. They have my commitment to work diligently to change this reality in our city.
Today, I called a meeting with executive leadership in the Baltimore Police Department to identify special initiatives targeted at quelling the increase in shootings we have recently seen. While many of these shootings were nonfatal, the sheer amount of violence is simply unacceptable.
This again shows the amount of work we need to do to reduce the number of illegal guns that are on the streets of Baltimore. It also illustrates how—as a city and community—we have to begin to change the culture of how we resolve conflict.
We will not be complacent in the face of violence. I have set the expectation that everyone must act with complete focus and dedication to making Baltimore a safer city.
