Even by Baltimore standards, the murder of 16-year-old Brent Flanagan was beyond comprehension. The teenager was beaten and stabbed to death April 7, his body dismembered, and a house set on fire to cover up the crime.
“The dismemberment of the body showed the almost total [cutting] off of the legs from the knee down,” Baltimore Police Homicide Detective Roscoe Lewis wrote his report on Flanagan?s death. “[Flanagan?s] shoulder was almost severed with multiple stab wounds through the body.”
Flanagan?s murder was one of 20 in April ? and 94 so far this year.
Police have solved a total of four of April?s homicides, including Flanagan?s, and 22 of this year?s total killings, for a 23.4 percent closure rate. In comparison, the national closure rate for homicides is 62 percent, according to the FBI.
“Our city is hemorrhaging murder every day,” Baltimore mayoral candidate Andre Bundley said. “We have to stop the hemorrhaging. Once we get our police to not be so overwhelmed, they can do a better job solving these unsolved murders.”
Flanagan was one of two teenagers killed in Baltimore this month. The other, Ernest Buchanan, 18, of Reisterstown, was stabbed to death in broad daylight inside a downtown McDonald?s near the Inner Harbor. Of the month?s 20 victims, 17 were shot fatally.
“Bullets in Baltimore are as urgent a crisis as bombs in Baghdad,” said State Del. Jill Carter, D-District 41, who wrote a recent campaign letter comparing the two cities.
“Baltimore or Baghdad: Which is the greater American tragedy?” Carter?s letter asks. “As of March 19, 2007, violence has claimed the lives of 47 Americans in Baghdad since the start of the year. During the same period, violence claimed 61 lives in Baltimore, Maryland ? most due to gunshot wounds. Thousands marched this past weekend to end the loss of life in Baghdad. By contrast, the cry of outrage in Baltimore has barely risen to the level of a whisper.”
But with increases in homicides and shootings as a backdrop, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon this week unveiled two crime-fighting initiatives ? an overarching plan and a plan targeted at guns.
Included in those plans is a strategy of targeted enforcement at the city?s worst offenders.
“Each district, division and unit has a top 10 list of those individuals that are causing whatever problems that are occurring in our neighborhoods,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm said. “Whatever the problem is, those are the people we?re targeting.”
GANGS
In addition to its brutality, Flanagan?s death also underscored another problem for Baltimore — both he and his accused killer, 20-year-old Nicholas Brunson, were known gang members.
“The defendant and the victim were both members of the ?Bloods,? ” Lewis wrote.
Baltimore has about 2,600 known gang members, according to a report from the Baltimore City Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, including the following:
» Police have identified 400 Bloods and 100 Crips operating in Baltimore.
» More than half of gang members are under the age of 25.
» There are more than 50 gangs with about 500 members in city high schools and an additional 500 gang members in middle and elementary schools.
» About half of all gang members from state jails and prisons are released into Baltimore.
Carter said recruiting more police officers from Baltimore would better help connect to the community and steer young people away from gangs.
“We need people who grew up in Baltimore, who understand the community and the culture,” she said. “We need people who aren?t just today finding out that, ?Oh yeah, there are gangs in Baltimore.? ”
At the end of April, the murder rate in Baltimore was three ahead of last year?s number. Shootings increased 26 percent over last year. But total violent crime fell 17 percent, according to police department statistics.
Dixon said she expects the murder rate to drop as her new plan is implemented.
“A crime strategy is not a quick fix,” she said. “It is a long-term effort. You have to start somewhere.”
APRIL HOMICIDE VICTIMS
April 2: Darrell Smith, 21, of Baltimore, shooting
April 8: Eric Zuraski, 39, address unknown, stabbing
April 9: John Daughtry, 25, of Baltimore, shooting
April 11: Tavon Campbell, 20, of Baltimore, shooting
April 12: Brent Flanagan, 16, of Baltimore, stabbing *
April 18: Johnnie James, 25, of Baltimore, shooting
April 18: Kevin Randall, 45, of Baltimore, shooting
April 19: Christopher Wayman, 23, of Baltimore, shooting *
April 20: Joseph Ensey, 45, of Woodlawn, shooting *
April 22: Van Johnson, 29, of Baltimore, shooting
April 22: Damon Dubose, 23, of Baltimore, shooting
April 26: Ernest Buchanan, 18, of Reisterstown, stabbing *
April 27: Dewitt Smith, 25, of Baltimore, shooting
April 29: Ronald Daniels, 29, of Baltimore, shooting
April 29: Victim?s family not notified, 36, address unknown, shooting
April 29: Azerwoine Walker, 30, of Baltimore, shooting
April 29: Leroy Sanders, 22, of Baltimore, shooting
April 30: Deshaun White, 31, address unknown, shooting
April 30: Adult male victim unidentified, shooting
April 30: Eric Queen, 24, of Baltimore, shooting
BY THE NUMBERS
2007 homicides: 94
2007 homicides closed: 22
Homicide comparisons: Philadelphia reported 128 through April 24; New York reported 128 through April 29; Washington D.C. reported 55 through May 1.
SUSPECTS FACING TRIAL FOR MURDERS IN APRIL
» Nicholas Brunson, 20, of Baltimore, is charged with first-degree murder in the April 12 stabbing death of 16-year-old Brent Flanagan. Case closed by Det. Roscoe Lewis.
» Korey Harris, 17, of Brooklyn, is charged in the April 19 shooting death of Christopher Wayman, 23. Case closed by Det. Anthony Fata.
» Kirk Fonseca, 21, of Baltimore, and Lewis Rich, 20, are charging with stabbing 18-year-old Ernest Buchanan to death inside a downtown McDonald?s one street away from the Inner Harbor. Case closed by Det. Don Bradshaw.
CLEARED
» In what was undoubtedly the most unusual case to make its way into the Baltimore murder tally this month, Joseph Ensey?s death was ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner?s Office on April 20.
Ensey died in November 2006 due to complications from a 1991 shooting, doctors determined this month. The man police say is responsible for Ensey?s killing, Gamel Brown, 42, of Baltimore, cannot be tried for the homicide because he already pleaded guilty in the early 1990s to a handgun violation in connection with Ensey?s shooting, police said.
