While on probation for a gun arrest, Michael Blackwell, 27, walked up to a teenager standing on an East Baltimore corner. He pulled out a gun and shot the teen in the head several times, leaving him to die in a pool of blood, police say. Later that night at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a woman arrived to identify the dead young man as her brother, Davon Qualls, 17.

Qualls was one of 22 people slain on the streets of Baltimore in September, bringing the total of homicides this year to 231 ? 19 more than the 212 killed this time last year. Police have solved 81 – 35 percent – of this year?s homicides.