Mass shooting at Brooklyn Homes highlights dangers for young people in Baltimore
BALTIMORE -- Sunday morning's mass shooting in the apartment community of Brooklyn Homes underscores the ongoing struggle of being a young person in Baltimore.
The headlines stretched beyond Baltimore's borders this week.
That's in part because the majority of the victims of the mass shooting are under 18 years old.
"There are people losing their loved ones," Bryonna Harris, 20, told WJZ. "They're losing their friends to gun violence at such young ages. They don't even have a chance to grow up and experience life."
Harris was a student at Frederick Douglass High School in 2019 when a staff member was shot in the lobby.
She and other youth advocates told WJZ that there is a danger of desensitizing violence.
"They see the things happening in Baltimore and it's been so normalized they turn a blind eye to it," she said.
Ariana Dabner from Aziza Peace noted the reaction that people have to violence on social media platforms.
"When you look at the comments, there are so many comments laughing at it, and I start to notice people are numb to emotion because we're so used to seeing it on social media," she said.
Health care workers are at Brooklyn Homes following the shooting. They say that the trauma of the mass shooting has reverberated through the community's families.
Some people are being offered relocation services—and they want to take them, Cyrus Nusum from Transformational Health said.
"I could see it. I could hear it in his voice," Nusum said. "He's afraid for him and his daughter. These people want to move."
Harris said that the mounting violence has created a feeling of inevitability.
"To me, it's almost like, 'I'm next,'" Harris said. "It's like, 'Dang. I don't even have a chance to grow up and experience the life I want to live.'"
Gov. Wes Moore and his wife, Dawn, visited Brooklyn Homes community on Tuesday in the wake of the mass shooting.
"We want the community to know that, collectively, we stand together," he said.
Moore said he met with some of the family members who are grieving over the gunshot vicitms.
"To all of the victims and all of the families: the message is we grieve with you," he said. "Our hearts are broken with you."
