Baltimore's 2025 homicide victims mourned during community prayer walk

Community members gathered for a prayer walk on Monday to remember the 134 people killed in Baltimore in 2025.

In the city's Irvington neighborhood, the names of those who died this year were read aloud.

"It's a time to bring people together to bring some solace and some prayer," said Father Mike Murphy, from St. Joseph's Monestary. "We read all the times of those who have died the past year. We think it's important to speak their name, sort of in the reverence and to call their name into being."

Finding support

Shawntria Carey walked in the third-annual Annual Prayer for Peace, in honor of her 33-year-old son, Darrius Bunch, who died during an assault in March of 2025.

"He was funny, outgoing, he was just Darrius," Carey said. "He was silly, very silly."

Carey was one of hundreds of families ending 2025 in mourning after losing a loved one in a homicide, which is why the Archdiocese of Baltimore hosted the prayer to honor and remember each and every one of them.

"The holiday grief, the depression, we have to kind of lean on each other, support each other," Carey said.

Some participants say that doing better next year starts with showing up and drowning out the bad with the good in hopes of a better future.

"We're all in this together, we really are," participant Collier Slade said. "I can't imagine what they're going through, especially this time of year. So I think it's important to show them that we're here and there's love in the city and tap into that."

Police commissioner: Historic crime drop "is progress"

Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said that while the city is at a record low number of homicides this year—134 to date compared to 192 last year — events like the Prayer for Peace are especially important to show the progress made with slowing violent crime.

"One homicide is too many and this walk helps to celebrate the lives of those who have perished this year, but it also gives us an opportunity to keep pushing forward to do better next year," Worley said.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore and other organizations also partner each summer to host a gun buyback, collecting more than 1,000 guns over the last three years.

City leaders say partnership is part of their ongoing effort to make Baltimore a safer place.

"This is progress, but it's only progress," Worley said. "We're not celebrating 134 because it's still 134 too many, but it is progress from where we were and next year we want to go even lower and try to save every single life we can in the city of Baltimore."