Twins Diana andDawn Shipley were so close that Diana felt morning sickness when Dawn was pregnant. They had the same dreams at night. They finished each other?s sentences.
Now, with Dawn fatally shot over a cigarette ? the victim of a seemingly senseless act of violence on Baltimore?s streets ? Diana doesn?t know how to go on living.
“The bond between us was amazing,” said Shipley, 29. “I?ve lost a part of me.”
Dawn Shipley was gunned down May 3 on the 500 block of Brunswick Street by an unknown man who, police say, drew a gun after she refused to give him a cigarette.
She was one of 22 homicide victims in Baltimore City in May and one of 83 killed so far this year.
While staggering, those numbers mark a noticeable decrease from last year, when 33 people were killed in May and 128 were slain this time last year.
“We?re not looking at a monthly anomaly,” said Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford, who also points to a similar decrease in nonfatal shootings. “There has been a consistent and sustained shift in public safety in this city.”
TARGETING VIOLENT OFFENDERS
The homicides in May were the lowest for that month since 1978, said Sheryl Goldstein, Mayor Sheila Dixon?s director of criminal justice.
“What a difference a year makes,” Goldstein said.
Goldstein said an emphasis on targeting violent offenders and building stronger relationships with the community has proved the key to reducing crime. She also said programs cracking down on violence in Park Heights and hundreds of unserved juvenile warrants should help continue to lower the crime rate.
Excessive-force complaints against police are down 11 percent ? from 110 in 2007 to 98 so far in 2008, according to police statistics. Discourtesy complaints have been reduced from 97 to 73. Arrests that do not result in charges also are down.
Residents have noticed the change in police tactics from a strategy of zero tolerance to more targeted operations, said Margaret Burns, spokeswoman for the city?s top prosecutor, Patricia Jessamy.
“When our juries were exposed to those types of practices, that affected our conviction rate,” Burns said. “For the first time in many years, everyone is committed to a singular strategy. But there?s still too much crime. We certainly have a long way to go.”
NO. 1 CAUSE OF DEATH: HOMICIDE
Though decreasing, the violence in Baltimore is still brazen at times.
On May 15, four men were shot on the 1800 block of North Port Street, at North Avenue. Two died: Tony Allen, 52, and Omar Spriggs, 27.
Days earlier, 73-year-old Ellsworth Monroe-Bey was beaten to death on the 3800 block of West Belvedere Avenue by several people who stole his wallet. A 20-year-old man has been charged in the case.
“Homicide is the leading cause of death among young men in the city,” said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein. “When you?re talking about that many people being killed, it?s absolutely a public health problem.”
Sharfstein said health officials are heading up a program called Operation Safe Kids that helps more than 100 high-risk juveniles at any given time. Health officials are also involved in a program that?s trying to change a mindset in some communities that is implicitly approving of violence.
“We?re trying to focus on violence as a behavior that?s accepted in the community,” he said. “What does it take to have a community decide that violence is not an acceptable way to resolve disputes?”
SOLVING CASES STILL a CHALLENGE
But those killings that are occurring are still proving difficult to solve. Only four of May?s 22 homicides have resulted in arrests, and homicide detectives have cleared 21 of this year?s 83 cases.
The department has a 46.9 clearance rate, Clifford said, because detectives also have solved 17 cases from prior years.
For Shipley, that lack of closure is difficult to handle.
“It?s tormenting to me that there?s no progress and that person still has their freedom,” she said of the man who killed her sister. “I?m dying inside. That man had a gun. He had intention of harming somebody that night. It just happened to be my sister. That person could harm another human being.”
Shipley said there is a $2,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in her sister?s case.
May Homicide Victims
- May 1: Michael Wilson, 23, shooting, 4100 block of Newbern Avenue
- ?May 2: Ellsworth Monroe-Bey, 73, blunt force trauma, 3900 block of W. Belvedere Avenue *
- ?May 2: Haywood Rhodes, 28, shooting, 2700 block of Lauretta Avenue
- ?May 3: Dawn Lynn Shipley, 29, shooting, 500 block of Brunswick Street
- ?May 4: Sean Henderson, 35, shooting, 3200 block of Belair Road **
- ?May 4: Tyrone Freeman, 25, shooting, 2100 block of Orleans Street
- ?May 5: Paris Richardson, 21, shooting, 2500 block of E. Hoffman Street
- ?May 6: Kenneth Carter, 17, shooting, 3000 block of Presbury Street
- ?May 7: Robert Johnson, 39, stabbing, 1200 block of James Street
- ?May 9: David Henderson, 18, shooting, 2800 block of Hillen Road
- ?May 11: Timothy Swann Jr., 27, stabbing, unit block of S. Greene St.
- ?May 14: Marvin Lucas, 21, shooting, 300 block of S. Dallas Court ***
- ?May 15: Tony Allen, 52, shooting, 1800 N. Port Street
- ?May 15: Omar Spriggs, 27, shooting, 1800 N. Port Street
- ?May 15: Marcellus Hall, 20, shooting, 1500 block of N. Mount Street
- ?May 16: Michael Morris, 46, shooting, 900 block of Colborne Road
- ?May 17: Valerie Barnes, 18, shooting, 800 block of Pontiac Avenue
- ?May 18: Jeffrey Gause, 42, shooting, 1700 block of Hollins Street
- ?May 19: Carlos Cervantes, 37, shooting, 200 block of S. Broadway
- ?May 24: Ronald Crowell, 22, shooting, 1600 block of Normal Avenue
- ?May 25: Cedric Yarborough, 18, shooting, 1100 E. North Avenue
- ?May 27: Josephine House, 63, strangling, 1700 block of N. Port Street ****
* Arrest made. Keon “Dunn” Dorsey, 20, of the 5300 block of Curthburt Avenue, is charged with first-degree murder. Case closed by Detective Gregory Boris.
** Arrest made. Dominic Brown, 27, of the 1300 block of Vida Drive, is charged with first-degree murder. Case closed by Detective Valencia Vaughn.
*** Arrest made. Donielle McCoy, 20, of the 1800 block of East Biddle Street, is charged with first-degree murder. Case closed by Detective Marvin Sydnor.
**** Arrest made. Michael Falls, 47, of the 800 block of Abbott Court, is charged with first-degree murder. Case closed by Detective John McGrath.
