In the aftermath of yet another shooting involving teenage victims Sunday night at the Inner Harbor, the city’s mayor, police commissioner and state’s attorney stood side by side at City Hall pledging to tackle the problem, in part by ramping up enforcement of a citywide curfew for young people in the summer months.

“The loss of one life in our city is one too many, especially when we’re seeing this trend of young people who are the ones that are losing their lives and becoming victims of gun violence over minuscule, basic human conflict,” Mayor Brandon Scott said Monday afternoon in a news conference, emphasizing that the city is committed to enhancing its efforts to protect teens in the city.

“This is about us doing everything in our power to keep our young people safe,” Scott added.

The city’s youth curfew policy requires kids younger than 14 years old to be home by 9 p.m., and kids between 14 and 16 to be home by 11 p.m. between Memorial Day and the last Sunday of August.

The rest of the year, the curfew for the latter age group is 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 10 p.m. the rest of the week.

Beginning on Memorial Day, the city will roll out youth connection centers — as it has in past years — where young people found in violation of the curfew can be taken. According to the curfew policy, staff at the facility are supposed to notify family that the child is there, and “take appropriate measures to reduce the probability that the minor will commit a subsequent violation.”

The city will also take other measures to keep kids safe during the summer months, Scott said, including providing “safe, positive activities” to engage in, such as summer camp. Over 7,000 young people will also have the opportunity to get a job through YouthWorks, he added.

The latest incident involving young victims occurred around 9 p.m. Sunday in the 400 block of East Pratt Street, in which a 14 year-old and a 16 year-old were shot. Both suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Spring break week saw many Baltimore teenagers socializing at the Inner Harbor, and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said in the Monday news conference there were around 250 young people in the area Sunday night. The Baltimore Police Department has also maintained a heavy presence in the Inner Harbor in recent days, with more than 30 officers there at the time of the shooting, Harrison said.

After the officers made an arrest related to fighting and were escorting that person away, Harrison said Monday, “multiple shots were fired by an unidentified suspect with officers less than 25 feet away.” Police arrested a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old, but have not yet confirmed them to be suspects in the shooting, Harrison said.

The shootings are part of a wave of gun violence among high school-age Baltimore residents that has only worsened in recent months. The first three months of this year have marked the deadliest start to a year for Baltimore teens since at least 2015.

A manager at an IHOP restaurant located near where Sunday’s shooting occurred said a curfew “is needed” for young people in the city. The area sees large groups of young people every year around the time of spring break, said Tyrone Johnson, 62, who has worked at the IHOP for about four years.

Last year, he said, a girl was beaten nearby. Two years ago, “a whole restaurant full” of young people all ran out at the same time without paying, and the restaurant lost thousands of dollars, Johnson said. Recently, two girls entered the restaurant and started screaming at each other from across the room, he said, disturbing customers.

Starting two years ago, Johnson said, the IHOP hasn’t let young people into the restaurant without an adult present around the time of spring break, and only lets them order takeout.

Montre Braxton, a manager at a Popeyes in the area, worries that a curfew may only make things worse.

“It’s going to cause more problems,” Braxton said, “because they are going to rebel.” The curfew, she said, could lead to more commotion in the area, and more confrontations between police and young people.

Some community members from across the city said the commitment to ramping up enforcement of the curfew is overdue.

Monique Washington, president of the Edmondson Village Community Association, questioned why city leaders hadn’t been enforcing the curfew all along.

“For something like yesterday to happen, you should have been been prioritizing the problem,” Washington said. “We’ve got babies shooting each other, because you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do.”

Edmondson Village was the scene of a deadly mass shooting in January that left one Edmondson-Westside High School student dead, and injured four other teens, sparking concerns over the lack of enforcement of the city’s daytime curfew policy.

“Stop making excuses for these kids, stop making excuses for the parents. I’m tired of hearing, ‘you don’t know what’s going on at home,’” Washington said. “Damn it, find out and get the right resources in place to help these people. Everybody is getting tired.”

Linda Gruzs, president of the Cedmont Community Improvement Association, questioned how the curfew will be enforced.

How will police ensure young people are the age they say they are, she wondered. “How are they going to prove that? Are they going to make them carry identification cards?”

Gruzs also questioned if the city has enough police to be constantly monitoring young people when there are other things happening across the city. Washington pointed out that police are already understaffed.

Gruzs also feels that parents need to be more responsible for their kids. When she was growing up, she said, it was her parents who implemented a curfew for her.

Helene Quinn, president of the Waltherson Improvement Association, supports the curfew and emphasized that the problem is that there isn’t enough for young people to do or to be engaged by in the city. Quinn said she’d like to see more recreation centers or community centers in the city to engage young people.

“If we had more places for them to go, they probably wouldn’t just be idly walking around bored,” Quinn said. “And when young people are just walking around with nothing to do, it can often get them into trouble.”

cadence.quaranta@thebaltimorebanner.com