Forget it Jake, It's Baltimore

John Sexton, who seems to draw the Baltimore beat at Hat Hair, No one held accountable for the worst mass shooting in Baltimore history

This summer Baltimore experience the worst mass shooting in the city’s history. It became known as the Brooklyn Day shooting or sometimes the

Brooklyn Homes shooting and it happened early in the morning of July 2. Two people were killed and 28 more were injured. Police believe that 15 different people fired weapons.

This wasn’t just a mass shooting, it was a mass shooting of children. Fifteen of the victims were under the age of 18. The youngest person shot was 13-years-old.

The shooting quickly became national news and the city’s mayor, Brandon Scott, vowed he and police would not rest until the people responsible were held accountable.
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Today the city released a 175-page after-action report noting a series of mistakes made by the city, starting long before the shooting. Brooklyn Day is a block party which happens in the Brooklyn neighborhood every summer. In 2022 the event, which starts in the early evening, was shut down early because police were concerned it could get out of hand. That angered many residents and police believed that this year the event might be advertised more quietly so as not to alter police in advance.

BPD’s Social Media Monitoring Unit did see evidence the block party was happening this year but on the day of the event no one was working in that unit. Throughout the afternoon as the crowd grew, police began getting calls about various problems connected to the event including disorderly conduct and a DWI car crash. When calls came in about people with weapons the police were slow to respond. I’m quoting this at length so you can get a sense of how this was developing
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There were more calls and ShotSpotter alerts but police seemed to be downplaying it as just a party. There was a shift change at midnight and police were just monitoring the party. There were also so-called Safe Streets staff at the party that night and they had de-escalated several fights, but they all left the party by 11:30, about an hour before the shooting
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But again, the real problem is that police don’t seem to have anything in the way of suspects for the city’s worst ever mass shooting. BPD also doesn’t seem interested in any help from the FBI to find those suspects. My guess is there are dozens of people who know who started this but they are all familiar with the maxim “snitches get stitches” and are not stepping forward to help. There’s no statute of limitations on murder so this case can remain open for months or years to come. But you have to think that if police don’t make some arrests soon, they probably won’t be successfully closing these cases.