City leaders and community members on Thursday said they’re heartbroken and awaiting answers after the fatal police shooting of Bilal “BJ” Abdullah, a longtime arabber and fixture in the community, in West Baltimore.
Baltimore’s famous yet dwindling community of horse and cart produce vendors has been around for centuries and remains one of the few ways to buy fresh fruit and vegetables in the city’s food deserts.
“If you live in West Baltimore, or really Baltimore in general, and you depend on the arabbers to get your fruits and fresh produce, you knew this brother,” said Aaron Maybin, chair of the city’s Civilian Review Board. “You might not have been on a first-name basis with him. You might not have partied together on the weekends, but you recognized his smiling face. You recognized his horse and his cart.”
Abdullah quit arabbing several years ago, but he could still often be found in the neighborhood where one of the city’s horse stables remains.
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Nikki Smith said that about an hour before the shooting, she gave Abdullah some lasagna from the Journey Mental Health and Wellness, the food pantry and community resource center she owns and operates at 1800 Pennsylvania Avenue. “He said he was going to find a family to give it to. He probably still had it in his bag,” Smith said.
She knew Abdullah because he was one of the men who were often outside her center.
He helped her haul her groceries up to the center, dropped off fruit and vegetables, swept up around the outside, and handed out coins to kids. “He was just a good person,” she said.
The community, she said, is trying to process hurt and sadness. “It is a lot of grief. They are tight-knit,” she said.
Smith said several young men witnessed the shooting from beginning to end and gave her vivid descriptions of what occurred, which dispute some of the details in police accounts.
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Representatives from Mayor Brandon Scott’s office will come to Smith’s center on Friday to meet with the young men, she said.
M. Holden Warren, a co-founder of Stable Baltimore, an organization that is attempting to help arabbers continue their businesses, said Abdullah “was one of the last hardcore guys that was doing it on a day-to day-basis. He was like the postman.”
Abdullah grew up hanging around the stables and inherited his love of the business from his father, who was also an arabber.
He loved children and would offer them free fruit and take them along on his routes. When families who bought from him regularly couldn’t afford an item, he would give them a price break or let them take items and pay him later.
Warren, who has documented arabber culture, said Abdullah worked five to six days a week at the trade, covering miles of territory crossing the city from east to west, which was hard on his body.
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He quit a few years ago because of health problems. He never had health insurance, and he told Warren he thought he ought to try to get a job that was more stable.
“It is hard work, and there is very little safety net,” Warren said. “He loved it and really wanted to do it for a living.”
Warren hoped to get Abdullah back on the road with a horse and wagon this summer, as the organization tries to grow the number of arabbers in the city by instituting modern techniques, like an app that tracks where the fruit sellers are for customers.
Even if he didn’t return to the job this summer, Stable Baltimore needed his expertise.
Authorities have not yet released the name of the man killed or the officers involved in the shooting, and did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
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Police Commissioner Richard Worley said Tuesday night that officers patrolling the area around Pennsylvania Avenue and Laurens Street in Upton around 7 p.m. Tuesday approached a man whom they believed to be armed.
The Maryland Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division, which investigates all police-involved fatalities in the state, released a preliminary investigation report Wednesday that said officers were in an unmarked cruiser when they approached a man who wore a crossbody bag while standing on a corner. Police attempted to speak to him from the unmarked cruiser, the attorney general’s office said, and an officer got out of the car and began following him.
According to the report, the man shifted his crossbody bag from back to front before running off.
Police said that during a chase and attempt to detain the man, he shot at officers and three officers shot at the man.
Police said an eight-year veteran of the department was shot in the foot and taken to Shock Trauma. The officer was in “fair” condition and scheduled for surgery Wednesday afternoon.
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The attorney general’s office did not confirm whose gun initially discharged, but said three officers fired multiple shots after the man pointed a firearm at police.
A tense scene unfolded in the aftermath of the shooting as bystanders confronted police, calling it an incident of police brutality. Dozens of police vehicles filled the street, and officers pushed people back from the scene of the shooting.
One of the reasons so many bystanders were angry, Warren said, is because Abdullah was well known in the neighborhood. One of the two stables in the city where Abdullah often hung out was just a few city blocks away from the shooting.
Councilman James Torrence, who represents Upton and other neighborhoods in West Baltimore, issued a statement saying he was saddened by the police shooting.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the family of Bilal Abdullah and all impacted residents,” he said in the statement, calling for a thorough and transparent investigation.
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Similarly, Baltimore’s AFRO newspaper quoted the local branch of the NAACP offering condolences to friends, family and the community over Abdullah’s death.
The Baltimore Police Accountability Board will hold an emergency meeting Friday at 6.pm. on Zoom, according to Jamal Turner, chair of the board. The meeting is open to the public.
Turner said the board is waiting for police body camera footage and more details. “The investigation is in the hands of the Attorney General, but we expect a complaint to be filed,” he said.
He encouraged members of the public who believe they witnessed inappropriate behavior by police to file a complaint with his board through the Office of Equity and Civil Rights.
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