Baltimore police: Gunmen kill 3 near university campus; homicides up 40 per cent from last year
BALTIMORE (AP)_ Gunmen killed three people gathered on a corner near a U.S. university Tuesday night, police said.
Two gunmen shot a total of four people _ one who was in stable condition _ a few blocks from the urban campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, according to police.
Baltimore has seen a spike in violence since the April death of Freddie Gray, a young African-American who died while in police custody after being arrested. The incident sparked unrest across Baltimore and intensified a debate over how police treat minorities.
With the three deaths and a separate fatal stabbing overnight, Baltimore’s homicide total so far this year is now 155, according to police. That’s a 48 per cent increase compared to the same time last year. Shootings have increased 86 per cent.
On Tuesday night, the two light-colored vans pulled to the side of the road and one person got out of each van and began firing, campus police said in a statement on the school’s website.
Officers responded about 10:30 p.m. to the shooting, in a residential neighbourhood in West Baltimore a few blocks from the campus, Detective Rashawn Strong said in a statement early Wednesday. They found three people with gunshot wounds. One male was pronounced dead at the scene, and another male and a female were taken to a hospital, where they died. The fourth victim sought treatment at a hospital for a gunshot wound to the buttocks.
It was the second shooting in the block in a week, according to campus police.
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Alwin Marshall-Squire is the Editor-in-Chief of S-Q Publications Inc., overseeing editorial strategy for GTA Weekly, GTA Today, and Vision Newspaper. He leads the publications’ mission to deliver bold, original journalism focused on the people and communities of the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, and the global Caribbean diaspora.
Also writes for GTA Weekly and GTA Today.
