City officials and nonprofit partners on Monday blanketed the East Baltimore neighborhood where a shooting killed one and injured seven others the night before, offering on-site therapy and counseling for traumatized residents.
Officers responded to the Oliver area around 8 p.m. Sunday at the 1300 block of Spring Street near Caroline & Hoffman Park, locating “multiple” victims. Several of the victims were identified after walking into local hospitals for gunshot wounds, police said.
On Monday afternoon, police identified the 36-year-old man who died in the shooting as Anthony Martin.
The injured, who are all now in stable condition, include six men ranging in age from 21 to 46 and one 41-year-old woman, police said.
Multiple guns were found at the scene of the shooting, according to the police.
Rick Fontaine Leandry, a neighborhood stabilization response manager with the mayor’s public safety office, said Monday that he has lived down the street, on the border of Oliver and Johnson Square, for the last five years.
Leandry said his first thought after hearing about the shooting was about a nearby basketball court where children often play, including his 9-year-old son. He said that fortunately, a storm had scattered most of the families and sent them home earlier in the evening.
City Councilman Robert Stokes said that residents near the park had been complaining about engines revving at between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., adding that the neighborhood “deserves better.”
”They should be able to have some sleep, have some peace,” he said. “It’s very unfortunate that somebody had to die, people had to get shot, to get this kind of reaction.”
The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) was on site to begin engaging what director Stefanie Mavronis described as an “extremely well tight-knit community that is shaken up by this incident.”
She said the agency will be there over the next 45 days assessing the neighborhood’s needs so that it can tailor its response. Typically, MONSE pairs residents with resources offered by city agencies and nonprofits. Leandry said that the starting point for such engagement on Day One is “just offering love and care.”
Just before midnight Sunday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott sent out a statement urging anyone with information about the shooting to contact police by calling the department’s homicide tip line at 410-396-2100.
“Tonight, Baltimore is grappling with the impacts of another mass shooting event that has taken the life of one Baltimorean and irreparably changed several others. Investigators from the Baltimore Police Department will diligently work to find and hold those who are responsible accountable for this horrific act of violence,” he said in a statement.
The mayor’s office, working with the Office of Emergency Management, was able to send out text alerts and emails to residents who live nearby. The messages offer assistance and support, including therapy and trauma-informed care.
Residents can get assistance from MONSE’s neighborhood Response Line by calling 410-929-5488.
The Banner’s Kaitlin Newman contributed to this article.
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