Three deadly shootings over the weekend brought the city?s 2007 homicide count to seven ? one ahead of 2006?s total to date, police officials said. The weekend?s deadly toll was raised to four when a previously unclassified death was ruled a homicide by the state medical examiner.
Police said an unidentified adult black male was shot on the 5200 block of Ready Avenue at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday. Saturday evening at around 9:45 another unidentified black male was shot to death on the 300 block of West North Avenue. On Sunday, 21-year-old Yule Henderson was shot and killed on the 1800 block of Monford Avenue.
Also, the death of a 44-year-old woman who died on the 2000 block of West North Avenue on Jan. 2 from blunt-force trauma was ruled a homicide.
Police said that there are no suspects in any of the cases, and that the investigations are all ongoing.
State Del. Jill Carter, who has announced her candidacy for mayor, said the recent death toll means new strategies are needed to fight crime.
“It?s tragic,” she said. “But murders don?t happen in isolation. Until we put the focus on patrol, prevention and investigation, we?re going to continue to have the problems.”
Carter said she recommended putting less emphasis on the statistics, and more on working in the community.
“We need human stat, not Citi-Stat” she said, referring to the city programthat accumulates crime statistics to target high-crime areas. “Numbers don?t tell you what?s happening in the community.”
But Matt Jablow, spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department, said too many criminals are allowed back onto the streets. “I would say a much larger problem is the fact that repeat violent offenders are allowed to walk the streets of Baltimore,” he said.
“We arrest them time and again for serious violent crimes, only to find them back out on the street.”
