Father grieves shooting death of 16-year-old son in Baltimore: "The devil took him away from me"

A family is searching for answers after a 16-year-old was shot and killed inside a home in North Baltimore on Friday, March 6.

Jaythan Day was living in Baltimore with his sister in a home for teenagers, his family told WJZ-TV. 

Officers responded around 6:25 p.m. to a home in the 1400 block of West Old Cold Spring Lane, where the teen was found inside and unresponsive with a gunshot wound. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Day's family thinks he was shot by someone whom he knew. 

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call police at 410-396-2455 or the Metro Crime Stoppers tipline at 1-866-7LOCKUP.

"I lost everything"

Day's father told WJZ he was a good person with a good heart. Dennis Day said he is currently in rehab in Southern California, trying to get his life back on track and his family back together. Then he learned about his son's death.

"I lost everything. I just went black," Dennis Day said. "I started fighting, breaking stuff and everything else. I just, I lost all emotions because I was fighting so hard to get them back. I've been in recovery for the last two years, trying to get my recovery on track, but I've been clean now for the last two years, and I was trying to get everything in order to take my baby, but the devil took him away from me."

Jaythan Day moved to Baltimore from Alabama with his sister when his father was in treatment locally. His mother also lives in Maryland. 

Day was a student at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School in Baltimore, according to Principal Jermaine Skinner. 

"It is with profound sadness that we share the loss of one of our students, Jaythan Day, who passed away over the weekend. Our hearts are with Jaythan's family, friends, and all those whose lives he touched," Skinner wrote in a letter to the school community.

After moving here, his father said Jaythan got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

"He had the most sweetest heart in the world. He was so kind and considerate," Dennis Day said. "He just got caught up in the street gang life, and what we got to do is we got parents, we got to come together, and we got to talk more to our children."

His family believes Jaythan was being robbed at the time of the shooting. They say he lived with his sister in a home with other teenagers and that he did not live where the shooting happened.

According to the dispatch recording, police said someone called in the shooting, and quickly hung up. Another officer said it could involve a juvenile known to north district police.

Now, the Day family's goal is to be together again and live for Jaythan.

"Just going to keep going for him, be strong for him, and we live through him," Iriah Day, Jaythan's brother, told WJZ.

Neighbors told WJZ off camera the neighborhood is quiet, and they are shocked something like this happened there.

Violent weekend in Baltimore

The shooting death of Day wasn't the only violence in Baltimore over the weekend.

Two teenagers were shot among the four people injured in shootings in Baltimore since Friday evening. 

A 14-year-old boy was injured in a shooting Saturday night in the 1000 block of Abbot Court. He is expected to survive. 

Shortly before 2 a.m. on Sunday, a 29-year-old man was shot in the upper thigh. He was taken to the hospital in good condition, according to police.

Just before 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, a 40-year-old man was taken to the hospital in serious condition after he was shot in the upper torso during a dispute in the 800 block of Guilford Avenue.

Baltimore's 2026 violent crime

Police said officers have responded to 22 homicides in Baltimore this year, compared to 22 at this time in 2025. Police also said there have been 42 non-fatal shootings in 2026, compared to 42 in 2025.

The Baltimore Gun Violence Tracker shows that of the 430 people shot in Baltimore over the past 12 months, the majority (65) are between the ages of 22 and 25, the second most (60) is a tie between ages 26 and 29 and 30 and 34.

There have been at least 42 shot between the ages of 14 and 17 years old, with three deaths.