3 teens arrested in Baltimore after allegedly assaulting man, stealing his bike
Three teens who allegedly assaulted a man in Baltimore on Thursday evening and stole his bike have been arrested, police said.
Officers were called to the 6200 block of Eastern Avenue at around 7:34 p.m. for a report of an unarmed robbery, said a statement by the Baltimore Police Department.
When they arrived on the scene, they spoke with a 31-year-old man who said he was walking on the street with his bicycle when four teenage boys approached him from behind.
The man told officers the group assaulted him, then stole his bike and fled the scene.
After a search of the area, police located three of the four suspects, the police statement said. The three suspects, ages 15, 15 and 17, were taken into custody without incident and transported to a juvenile booking facility to face charges.
Concerns rise over juvenile justice reform in Baltimore
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Police Commissioner Richard Worley have spoken out in recent weeks about their frustrations with a surge in crimes in the city involving minors.
In particular, Worley has criticized Maryland's new Youth Charging Reform Act, which took effect Oct. 1. The law changes how certain offenses involving minors are handled in the state's juvenile justice system, including theft and robbery.
"I think it's going to make the streets more dangerous, because now our young people who get charged with a handgun automatically start in the juvenile system," Worley told CBS News Baltimore last week. "It's going to give a system that most of us agree is already broken responsibility for more individuals."
Scott has called for an entire overhaul of the juvenile justice system, saying more efforts are needed to deal with juvenile crimes than just one law. He was asked about the Youth Charging Reform Act after a stolen car driven by teens crashed into an MTA bus in East Baltimore late last month. The crash injured 16 people.
"That did not have to happen if our system was functioning in a much better way," Scott said last month. "These young people involved …many of them… this is not the first time that we've seen involvement with them with the police department."
On Thursday, Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates criticized a separate 2022 juvenile justice reform law, saying his office cannot hold a 12-year-old accountable for another crash that killed a 69-year-old man on a motorcycle.
"I keep knocking my head against the wall, and nobody's listening. And, unfortunately, now we have another individual who's lost their life at the hands of a juvenile," Bates said in a news conference.
The victim's family called the situation a "gut-wrenching injustice."
The Maryland Youth Justice Coalition pushed back against the criticism Friday, saying the Youth Charging Reform Act does not apply in these cases.
"Each of these cases is a tragedy. But a handful of cases — however painful — are not a reason to question Maryland's youth justice policies and laws; they are a reason to examine how those laws are being implemented by judges, prosecutors, and administrators," the statement read in part.
"It's not entirely surprising, but it's unsettling."
Neighbors and businesses along Eastern Avenue did know about Thursday's alleged assault by the group of teens. They were also disappointed the group would want to harm and steal from a person.
"They don't care," a Southeast Baltimore neighbor, Danny, said. "They really don't care."
"It is something that we don't take lightly," the Polish Food Market co-owner Agnes Leonczak said. "Certainly, we wish we didn't have to either witness situations like that or even hear about it."
Leonczak said she feels safe in this neighborhood, though it's not lost on her that there have been violent incidents in the past.
"We do hear from time to time about incidents," she said. "We have police stopping by sometimes looking for additional information."
Danny said it's time for him to move out of the city.
"We just want to get away from it," he said. "We just want to get away."
