Mayor talks curfew as FOP blasts 'lawlessness' while new details emerge on Inner Harbor shooting
BALTIMORE - Mandy lives near the Inner Harbor and heard at least three gunshots from the shooting that injured two teenagers, ages 14 and 16, just after 9 p.m. Easter Sunday on East Pratt Street.
"As the sun went down, it became a bit rowdier," she said. "I could hear the gunshots from where I live and kind of knew immediately what was happening."
She declined to give her last name and called the violence "heartbreaking."
"You don't want to walk away from the problem. You want to solve it," she said.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison told WJZ police are still looking for the person behind the shooting.
It unfolded as officers were arresting someone for fighting in crowd of more than 250 young people with more than 30 officers nearby. He said the shooter was just 25 feet from police.
Harrison said BPD did arrest a 17-year-old who fled on a dirtbike into a garage at Baltimore Police Headquarters, but that teen was later found to be unarmed—not armed as police previously reported.
Also, a 16-year-old was arrested nearby with a Polymer80 ghost gun, an unregistered weapon that can be assembled at home with a kit. Baltimore is already suing the manufacturer.
"My prosecutors will hold all individuals accountable, and one of the things we're focused on specifically is these guns—these illegal handguns. We hear about them time and time again," said Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates at a news conference Monday.
Mayor Brandon Scott said enforcing a curfew for juveniles that is already on the books is just one tool to stop the problem. He said the city is determined "to find out what we need to do help those young people who are in many cases unsupervised and in many cases unsupported."
"If someone will pull a gun out 50 feet from a police officer, clearly, it's not just a police issue," the mayor said.
Pam Needleman, who lives in Little Italy, is fed up.
"If you don't discipline kids and you can't let law enforcement people do their jobs, there's lawlessness," Needleman said. "As long as they run the streets, this is what you're going to have. …We had such a nice day Opening Day…it was beautiful and then the concert…and then you have this Easter night."
The police union said BPD is short-staffed and leaders "have created policies that leave police in a no-win situation when it comes to any sort of hands-on policing, let alone trying to enforce a curfew violation."
