Baltimore City Police are still investigating several violent incidents that claimed four lives and left others in the hospital with injuries over Mother’s Day weekend. Police say they are close to making arrests in two of the cases, but detectives, as of Wednesday, had no leads or motives in a majority of the crimes.
“Four lives lost in a weekend is terrible. We’re going to make sure that we respond accordingly, but at the same time, we don’t want people to lose track of where we are and what our commitments are,” said Baltimore City Police Department spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. “We are down four in a 33-year low in homicides. We’re down 18 in a 33-year low in non-fatal shootings and we’re going to continue the progress we’ve made.”
The violence began late Friday around 9 p.m. when a 27-year-old man survived multiple gunshot wounds he received in the 800-block of Bridgeview Road police said. Only hours later, at roughly 12:45 a.m. on Saturday, police responded to another shooting, in the 2800-block of Wegworth Lane. Police said no victim could be found at the scene, but a 25-year old male shot in the shoulder and leg was later identified as the victim when he showed up at an area hospital for treatment. Across town, and close to the time of the second shooting, police were called to the 3200-block of East Northern Parkway. There, police found another victim with multiple gunshot wounds. The woman shot suffered no fatal injuries and told police she was in her car at a stoplight when another unidentified vehicle pulled along side her and began firing bullets into her car. The shooters drove off, leaving police with no leads as to who could have committed the crime or why. “The victim in the case is still in the hospital. She is in critical condition and unable to talk to detectives,”said Guglielmi. “We’re looking at two possible angles. One is that it’s a case of mistaken identity and two, that it was a targeted shooting based on the individual.”
Guglielmi says that the police are pulling city-watch camera footage and attempting to retrace the victim’s steps in attempts to find a suspect.
The violence only intensified on Mother’s Day. Thirty four-year-old Thomas Weddington was taken to Sinai Hospital after being attacked in the 2600-block of Park Heights Terrace. He died from his injuries. Later in the day, at 4:40 p.m., police got another call, from the 4000-block of West Franklin Street. There, police responded to the shooting of Derrick Lawson, who lived in the 1700-block of North Smallwood Street. There are no leads or suspected motives in this case, nor in the shooting death of 22-year-old Dominick Brown, who was shot at 9:11 p.m. on Gough Street. Connections have not been drawn between the two shootings that took place Sunday afternoon and evening in the area surrounding Baltimore City College, which sits just off of 33rd Street between Loch Raven and The Alameda. Lacy Lamb, 19, was shot through a basement window around 10 p.m. Lamb was inside a home in the 1600-block of 32nd Street when a bullet pierced his upper body, causing his death two hours later at an area hospital. Lamb was the second shooting victim in the Northeast Baltimore community in a seven-hour period on Mother’s Day, as police were already investigating the nonfatal shooting of a man in the 1600-block of Chilton Street.
