Six minutes after midnight on Oct. 18, two Baltimore police officers happened upon a vicious scene in the city?s Western District.
Barely old enough to drink, Darren Mebane, 21, was frantically running ? afraid for his life.
Chasing him down the street, police say, was Lorenzo Speight, 32, a convicted drug dealer with an open warrant for his arrest from Anne Arundel County.
Charged with 22 crimes since 1993, Speight got off on an attempted murder charge in 2000. But this time, police say, his homicidal intentions would succeed.
He fired repeatedly at Mebane, striking him twice in the chest, then ran and jumped into a getaway car driven by Aaron Davis, 32, another convicted drug dealer, according to charging documents.
Davis, who has been charged with 13 crimes since 1992, “sped from the area,” until police caught the duo on the 1500 block of Dukeland Avenue ? where officers recovered a .357 handgun believed to be the murder weapon, charging documents state.
As for Mebane? The young man, who had no criminal record, died a short while later at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, one of 20 homicide victims in Baltimore City during October.
“We need to raise the level of outrage,” said community activist Walter Lomax, who was recently released from prison for a crime he says he didn?t commit. “It?s a call to action. We need people to wake up and say: ?I?m going to be part of the solution.? ”
?TAKING SMALL STEPS?
By Baltimore standards, October was a relatively nonlethal month.
As of Saturday, the city had experienced 252 homicides in 2007, compared with 231 during the same period last year. Police have solved 91 of this year?s homicides and 37 previous years? homicides in 2007.
“This is at least the second month in a row we?ve had fewer homicides than the same period last year,” said Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford, who added that October 2006 saw 75 nonfatal shootings, compared with 40 this October.
“It?s an indication things are moving in the right direction,” Clifford said. “No one is saying the problem is solved. But we?re taking small and consistent steps forward.”
The killing is all too familiar to Baltimore resident Lola Jenkins, 64, whose cousin and three nephews were murder victims.
“It just tears you up inside,” Jenkins said.” They?ve taken the lives of so many young people. It?s becoming accepted now.”
But such violence shouldn?t be tolerated, said Kimberly Haven, executive director of Justice Maryland, which organized a 200-person rally at War Memorial Plaza on Oct. 28 to protest Baltimore?s slayings.
“We have been silent for too long,” Haven said. “This crisis does not rest solely on the steps of City Hall. It does not restsolely at police headquarters. It also rests on our doorsteps.”
NAACP RAPS POLICE BRASS
Even as police battle the homicide rate, the department also faces criticism from the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, which on Saturday called for a City Council investigation of racism within the agency.
Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the local branch of the civil rights organization, said he has received complaints that talented black officers are not promoted as quickly in the department as white officers.
Cheatham also takes issue with a high number of police-involved shootings this year in which the suspects are black.
Police have shot 30 people this year in Baltimore, compared with 15 in all of 2006.
“The overwhelming majority of white commanders and officers are not now ? nor have they ever been ? residents, students, congregants in faith institutions, in Baltimore City, starting with the commissioner,” Cheatham wrote in a statement. “There is a very troubling and enormous disconnect between the community and the police department.”
FEWER COMPLAINTS
But Clifford said relations between city officers and residents are actually improving, as shown by a drop in complaints filed against officers this year.
The department has received 21 percent fewer “excessive force” complaints ? 260 this year compared with 329 in the same period in 2006 ? and 12 percent fewer “discourtesy” complaints: 206 compared with 235 through the same time last year.
As for the sharp spike in police-involved shootings? That?s just the result of officers doing their jobs, Clifford said.
“That?s cops doing what the people ask cops to do,” he said. “They?re putting themselves in the middle of violence and crime in the city. No one should think for a second that it?s anything else than an incredibly dangerous job. I would hope, as a group, the residents of Baltimore will look at the enormous risks officers are taking and appreciate it and join in the fight. Police are taking the lead, and they?re being hurt in the process.”
Standing on the 2300 block of Greenmount Avenue in East Baltimore, Jenkins, a great-grandmother, said she didn?t blame the police for the deaths of her cousin and three nephews.
Instead, she blames the city?s persistent violence on years of societal decay ?the kind of problem that can?t be fixed in a week, a month ? or even a decade.
“This used to be a viable community,” she said, motioning her arm toward defaced buildings and trash-strewn streets. “It?s just gone downhill. There?s a lack of jobs for these young people. Many of them have no hope.”
OCTOBER HOMICIDE VICTIMS
Oct. 5: Tyrone Blanding, 30
Oct. 6: Darwin Kelly, 20
Oct. 6: Damon Coleman, 35
Oct. 9: Montaz Askew, 19
Oct. 10: Kwame Osafo, 21
Oct. 11: Kevin Ware, 40
Oct. 13: Deron Hope, 16
Oct. 14: Dion Biggs, 33
Oct. 15: Andre Bryant, 47
Oct. 15: Henry Mazyck, 39
Oct. 18: Darren Mebane, 21
Oct. 18: Qurron Holloway, 19
Oct. 19: Donte Davis, 25
Oct. 25: Christopher Burden, 23
Oct. 26: Veronica Fludd, 26
Oct. 29: Unidentified person
Oct. 30: Marlon Beckford, 31
Oct. 30: Alexander Robertson-El, 24
Oct. 31: Naim King, 31
Oct. 31: Unidentified person
