Truesee's Daily Wonder

As violence fluctuated this summer in Baltimore, the most recent week in September left at least 45 people shot throughout the city — 12 of them dead since last Sunday, Sept. 6, according to Baltimore police data.

Baltimore police confirmed on Sunday that from Sept. 6 to Sept. 13, 33 people were injured in shootings and 12 others were killed. But the week had already started off rough, coming off a violent Labor Day weekend when 12 people had been shot, two others were killed and one person was fatally stabbed. The latest shooting occurred at 12:24 a.m. Sunday in the 700 block of N. Montford Ave., where a 20-year-old was struck in the back.

On Friday, the hearts of local elected officials and community members of the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhood were shattered by the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy in their community just about 15 minutes before noon.

Mark Washington, executive director of the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello Community Corporation, said the community is also “a part of the failure” that led to the killing of the boy in their community.

After the boy’s death, Washington wrote a letter to the police major in the district and other elected officials of the area, saying the community needs to do more to prevent these types of situations from continuing to plague areas looking to rebuild in Baltimore City.

“We as a community should be doing so much more to offset those types of actions," Washington said. "While none of us directly pulled the trigger that took the life of the 14-year-old, we certainly are responsible for the conditions that allowed that to happen. Those lost lives cannot and must not be in vain.”

Baltimore City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke said the Northeast Baltimore neighborhood has been working hard to pull itself together, but when young people in the community die, it makes addressing local problems throughout the city even more difficult.

“I don’t know who this young man is but he should be a part of a neighborhood. We should know about him," Clarke said. "Our children and young people need to be known for who they are and their families and what a tragedy it is for those families when they die so young.”

The boy, who has not been identified by police, was shot and killed while in the 2600 block of Polk St. around 11:46 a.m. Friday. About a half-hour later, a 20-year-old man was injured in a shooting in the 300 block of Talbotts St.

Infants, teenagers and young children have now become recent victims of violence in the city. Clarke says the city needs to find solutions to deterring much of the ongoing violence.

As of Saturday, police said 232 people were killed in homicides in the city in 2020, just shy of the 242 recorded in the same time frame last year.

Over the past two days, at least three people were killed in shootings and three others were injured.

Early Saturday, an 18-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound to the stomach in the area of Cold Spring Lane at the Jones Falls Expressway around 12:04 a.m. and taken to an area hospital for treatment. Then about half an hour later, a 30-year-old woman was injured and another man, unidentified, ended up dying from his injuries in the 1700 block of W. North Ave. in the city’s Penn North neighborhood.

Later, at 6:36 p.m. Saturday, officers were called to the 2800 block of Clifton Park Terrace in Northeast Baltimore near Clifton Park Golf Course for a ShotSpotter alert.

When officers arrived to the scene, they found a 46-year-old woman and a 23-year-old woman who’d been shot. The two were later pronounced dead from their injuries at the hospital, police said.

Dandre Woods-Bethel, 24, was arrested and is awaiting murder, assault and weapons charges after police said Sunday that he called 911 from his home after he went outside and shot the two women Saturday evening. Maryland court records show he’s been accused of domestic violence twice since July 2019 and received a probation before judgement sentence with one-year of unsupervised probation after pleading guilty to violating a protective order.

After he was accused of domestic violence in July 2019, the court ordered Woods-Bethel to surrender his firearms and not contact an unnamed person or persons until Sept. 19, 2019, when the order was rescinded but after he’d been charged with violating a protective order on Aug. 31, 2019.

Police have not said what Woods-Bethel’s alleged motive could have been. Councilwoman Shannon Sneed, who represents the area as its councilwoman, said she has not heard who the victims were but added “it’s sad whenever we lose anybody in the streets of Baltimore.”

At 12:24 a.m. Sunday, officers were called to the 700 block of N. Montford Ave. for a Shotspotter alert, police wrote.

Upon arriving, the officers found a 20-year-old man who’d been shot in the back. He was taken to the hospital to be treated.

In late August, shootings in Baltimore had seemed to slow down. Starting Aug. 30, the week before, 13 people had been shot in the city and another woman, 20-year-old Kaylah Wade, was stabbed to death in North Baltimore while two other women were injured.

Eight of those people were homicide victims.

“We are at a very dangerous crossroads and we have got to do something for our young people to engage them in activities that are not crime related. And also, so families are not at so much stress that they cannot help our young people adequately where they cant help themselves,” Clarke said.