A month ago, residents in Loch Raven were awakened to calls and texts from friends around the country checking on them after a mass shooting near one of the major intersections. Are you OK, they asked? Is everyone OK?

Wednesday night, about 200 residents turned out to a meeting with Baltimore County Police Chief Robert O. McCullough and Councilman Mike Ertel to let them know that those living in the tidy brick townhouses along Joppa Road, Goucher Road, Taylor Avenue and Loch Raven Boulevard are most definitely not OK.

The situation had turned troubling long before an exchange of gunfire Dec. 17 left one person dead and nine people injured in an incident police have called “isolated and targeted.” A fiery crash preceded the early-evening shooting; police arrived to find a vehicle engulfed in flames.

At the Giant supermarket where many in the neighborhood shop, residents complain about panhandlers accosting them as they load groceries. When they get home, they encounter drivers speeding at night with their headlights off. If residents have friends over, they walk them to their cars at night — something they didn’t feel was necessary even two years ago. Those who walk pets at night complain of feeling uneasy, and those who are home in bed worry as helicopters hover overhead.

Residents wanted to hear from McCullough and Ertel on their plans to keep the community safer.

“I felt safer two years ago,” Loch Raven resident Stacy Keller said. “Now I am asking myself, do I want to move?”

Ertel said he’s been hearing that question more and more lately, but that crime is everywhere, and moving doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. He assured residents that county police take even nonviolent crime seriously and work hard to put up deterrents. Among them: cleaning up crime scenes quickly so criminals do not feel welcome in the neighborhood; removing graffiti; and collecting errant shopping carts from the streets. Ertel also helped craft legislation to rein in a hookah lounge that disturbed neighbors with late-night music and other nuisances; neighbors say it’s helped.

“A lot of this stuff is like whack-a-mole,” said Ertel, who noted that the same 200 or so suspects are responsible for most of the crimes. They get arrested, but if the charges don’t stick, they’re out again to re-offend.

A week after the mass shooting in Loch Raven, police arrested a 20-year-old man with a loaded AK-47 about a mile away from that scene. The magazine contained 10 rounds of ammunition and a “Glock switch,” which turns a semiautomatic gun into one that is fully automatic. He faces nearly a dozen charges, including motor vehicle theft, loaded handgun in a vehicle, possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition.

On Christmas Eve, 6 miles from the Loch Raven shooting, a 4-year-old child was shot along with his family. Jacobi Marcelle died, and his father, Mark Jones, was charged with murder. The child’s mother and sister survived.

Homicides have decreased from a zenith of 35 cases in 2022 to 25 in 2024, according to Baltimore County Police data. But the county had six homicides in December, the most it had logged in a single month since late 2022.

Despite the perception that crime is spiking, many crimes have dropped in Towson since last year, said Towson Precinct Capt. L. Schroeder.

Robberies are down 7%, burglaries are down 11%, grand theft auto is down 28%, and theft from cars is down 23%. But shoplifting has increased 29%, a statistic McCullough attributes to stores not cracking down on the practice during the pandemic and still not reporting it before it becomes systemic.

McCullough and Ertel promised open lines of communication and stressed that no one was relaxing. Police likely avoided more deaths through their quick triage at the scene, which got young victims emergency care quickly. But it was not lost on anyone that the situation could have led to multiple fatalities, and even one death is too many. As the officers on duty Dec. 17 came in and the chief introduced them, everyone clapped.

Residents said they were thankful to have a chance to air their concerns, but wished the department had more specific plans to address the problems.

Local resident Kim Stansbury echoed the sentiments of many of her neighbors when she went to the microphone and said, simply: “The people in this community, they’re nervous.”