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U.S. NEWS Monday 29 april 2019
Police: 7 shot, 1 fatally, in

latest Baltimore shooting

BALTIMORE (AP) — A gun- tist church nearby and was in the throes of a worrying
man fired indiscriminately pronounced dead at the increase of violent crime
into a crowd that had scene. Harrison said the six since 2015, when the ho-
gathered for Sunday cook- other victims were taken to micide rate spiked after
outs on a Baltimore street, hospitals, but he didn't re- the city's worst rioting in de-
wounding seven people lease their names and had cades following the death
including one of them fa- no immediate information of young black man in po- Police work near the scene where authorities say several peo-
tally, the city's police com- on their conditions. lice custody.q ple were shot, at least one fatally, Sunday, April 28, 2019, in Bal-
missioner said. "It wasn't anything dealing timore.
Authorities said the gunfire with the church. I want to
broke out shortly after 5 make that very clear," act-
p.m. on a block in the city's ing mayor Jack Young said.
western district lined with Harrison and Young urged
brick row homes. members of the public to
Police Commissioner Mi- help investigators with any
chael Harrison said a information as to a suspect
black male approached a or a motive.
crowd on foot and began "Someone knows some-
firing in what he called "a thing," Young said. "These
very tragic, very cowardly things ... they don't happen
shooting." Speaking at the by happenstance. People
scene afterward, Harri- know who's doing these
son said the shooting ap- shootings."
peared to be "extremely The Baltimore Sun reported
targeted" but he did not that bullet casings were
immediately elaborate on found scattered on the
a possible motive. ground near grills, and a ta-
The shooting comes rough- ble still had items on it that
ly six weeks after Harrison's appeared to be left from
swearing-in last month as a cookout. Police officers
Baltimore police commis- could be seen after the
sioner, when he promised shooting placing small or-
to make the city safer ange evidence markers on
and lead the department the ground, just feet from a
through sweeping reforms barber shop.
required by a federal con- Meanwhile, authorities said
sent decree. It's a daunting they would be seeking to
task in one of the country's interview witnesses who
poorest major cities where were present during the
there were more than 300 shooting.
homicides in each of the Baltimore has been
past two years. Harrison is plagued by drug-fueled vi-
the city's 14th police leader olence for decades and it
since the mid-1990s. has long been considered
The commissioner said one of the nation's most vi-
there were two cookouts olent big cities. But the cor-
occurring on opposite rosive impact of the drug
sides of the street Sunday, trade and a sea of illegal
and that shell casings were guns continue to spawn a
found in two different loca- depressing recurrence of
tions in the area, indicat- tit-for-tat turf wars and re-
ing that there may have taliatory attacks in swaths
been a second gunman, of the city, particularly in
or someone firing back at the deeply disenfranchised
the first shooter, who fled areas of West Baltimore.
on foot. It was unclear While city leaders continue
whether the cookouts were a perennial quest to re-
related, Harrison said. make the city in the eyes
One man who was shot of potential investors and
collapsed behind a Bap- visitors, Baltimore has been

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