Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/baltimore/)
BALTIMORE (AP) — A block party in Baltimore killed two people, wounded 28 others and prompted one resident to jump into action when she found a wounded teenage girl on her doorstep. Police identified the deceased as 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez and 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi. The 28 injured victims ranged in age from 13 to 32, with more than half younger than 18, officials said.
“I want everyone to hear me and hear me clearly,” Mayor Brandon Scott said during a press conference regarding youth-on-youth gun violence. “We are going back to the old days. We will be enforcing a youth curfew as we move into the latter spring and summer months.”
The backstories of Sakran and Pep couldn’t be more different. But their survivor stories drive their activism about the public health threat that gun violence poses and prove what some of the most alarming news headlines increasingly suggest: Almost anybody, almost anywhere, is a potential victim of gun violence.
In 2016, my colleagues and I wrote a paper that examined risk factors for repeat violent injury among black men in Baltimore that was published in the Journal of Surgical Research. The data we used for our analysis was collected from a questionnaire about risk factors for repeat violent injury.
I vividly remember the Maryland State Senate hearings on Feb. 1, 2018. I was hardly three weeks into my first legislative session, preparing to give my first-ever testimony against a bill egregious to youth justice reform, while simultaneously teaching myself how one even becomes an “Annapolis advocate.”
Violence perpetrated by youth continues to have far-reaching costs for society: It contributes to injury, community dysfunction, poor physical and mental health, lost economic output and premature death. In the United States, an average of 12 young people die from homicide every day, and homicide remains the third leading cause of death among youth 10 to 24 years old.
A scathing Justice Department report on unconstitutional police practices in the city includes a section not often seen in federal findings — a lengthy description of how the department has mistreated youth.
A circuit court judge acquitted Lt. Brian Rice of all charges related to the arrest and death of Freddie Gray today, the Baltimore Sun reported. The next trial of an officer in the case is scheduled for July 27.
The rumors were out a few days ago that Officer Caesar Goodson had been acquitted on murder and other charges in the death of Freddie Gray, and the streets around the courthouse were filled with protesters.
Less than 48 hours after the Caesar Goodman verdict left many in Baltimore longing for justice, the city was dealt another blow when popular rapper Lor Scoota, known and loved for giving back to the community, was shot and killed.