One man reportedly has been killed, four men are critically injured and a 16-year-old was wounded in a shooting Wednesday in the 2100 block of West Lexington Street in Baltimore, according to WBAL reporter Robert Lang.
Two to three men opened fire on a group, Lang reported. The ages of the wounded victims, who have not been identified, are 44, 39, 33, 26 and 16, according to Lang.
Commissioner Michael Harrison told The Associated Press and other news outlets the shooting erupted in a western district and the five wounded ranged from serious to critical condition. He declined to release the identities of those who were shot.
Officers responded to reports of gunshots after 2 p.m. Wednesday and found two people shot, Harrison said. Those two were transported to hospitals, and the four others arrived in private vehicles, he told the AP.
At least 40 shell casings were found at West Lexington Street and North Smallwood Street after the shooting, according to Phil Yacuboski of WBAL Radio.
So far, investigators have learned that the six people were together on the tree-lined block of rowhouses when at least two or three people began firing into the block, Harrison said. He added the shooters then fled.
Officers were canvassing in the neighborhood and collecting evidence, Harrison said.
He urged people with information about the shooting to contact police. In particular, he urged people to tell police “who are the individuals responsible for a very brazen, very cowardly act of shooting indiscriminately into a block where they struck six people. They could have potentially hit and killed many others.”
Mayor Brandon Scott said he and the commissioner had recently visited the area to talk to residents about working together on this issue.
“We know that this is an unfortunate thing that happens in this area of west Baltimore,” Scott said. “We will not and cannot accept that.”
Scott said he wanted to impress on everyone, particularly young men, that Baltimore can be a place “where we don’t continuously allow people that we know to be so weak that they will shoot six people, that they are so weak that they’re afraid that their basic little conflict that could have bruised their ego from some petty dispute can end in a loss of life.”
The shooting continues a recent spate of shootings since last Friday in cities including Chicago; Austin, Texas; and Savannah. The attacks have stoked concerns that a spike in U.S. gun violence could continue into the summer as coronavirus restrictions have eased across much of the nation.
As of Wednesday morning, Baltimore police reported 151 homicides in the city this year, compared with 144 at the same point last year. There have been 310 shootings that were not fatal in the city so far this year, compared with 269 last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
