Baltimore Mayor Jack Young urged residents to put down their guns and heed orders to stay home after multiple people were shot Tuesday night amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
What We Know:
- A mass shooting in a park on Tuesday left seven Baltimore residents hospitalized. In a statement about the shooting, Young stated hospitals don’t have room to tolerate gunshot victims as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the United States.
- He went on to state, “I want to reiterate how completely unacceptable the level of violence is that we have seen recently. We will not stand for mass shootings and an increase in crime.”
- He expressed to those that own guns to stop the violence as to not clog up hospitals with senselessly shot victims during this COVID-19 health crisis. He took an empathetic approach by saying “it could be your mother, your grandmother or one of your relatives. So take that into consideration.”
- Commissioner Michael Harrison said the city has observed an increase of crime since Friday, including the mass shooting Tuesday night. Five people were transported to area hospitals via medics and the other two drove there for aid. All seven are in serious but stable condition.
- A city officer who was on patrol in the area of the incident had allegedly engaged with the suspected gunman in the shooting as he fled the scene. The officer was not armed with the level of “deadly firepower” that the suspect had. The officer did fire his weapon, but it is still unknown if the officer had struck the suspect.
As of Wednesday, there have been 5 confirmed positive cases of the coronavirus in Baltimore.
