Parents demand accountability after 5 students shot in Southwest Baltimore
BALTIMORE -- The shooting of five students in Southwest Baltimore on Wednesday sent shockwaves through the community.
Family members of a 16-year-old boy who was killed by gunfire returned to the site of the shooting Wednesday evening to pray and remember his young life.
Witnesses told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren they were scared for their lives when the gunfire erupted just after 11 a.m.
"It sounded like an Uzi," Christopher Nicholes said. "Nine or ten shots at least."
Nicholes had been leaving the library with his sister at the time of his shooting.
Nicole Robinson was trying to keep in touch with her 16-year-old son while he was locked down inside Edmondson-Westside High School across the street.
"I can no longer fight this battle in Baltimore City," Robinson told Hellgren. "I can't sacrifice my 11-year-old son nor my 16-year-old son."
Many people told WJZ that young people often congregate outside the Popeye's restaurant near where the shooting happened. Signs say no students are allowed to be served during school hours.
Mayor Brandon Scott said the restaurant had been cited in the past.
Police told WJZ that they received 41 calls for service in the block where the shooting happened since December 1st alone.
The manager at Popeye's declined to comment.
Various groups have complained for years online about the state of the shopping center—ravaged by fire and neglect—and a far cry from its heyday in the 1940s and the 1950s.
"I don't know if the citations are not high enough," Monique Washington, the president of the Edmondson Village Community Association, said. "Instead of our council people worried about having pensions in eight years, they should be up here raising citations so these stores will feel some kind of consequences."
Yolanda Pulley's 15-year-old niece was killed near the shopping center.
She broke down in tears speaking about the loss of life and said her heart is broken for her city.
"How do you blame Popeye's and don't blame [Schools' CEO] Santelises? The school should have kept them in there. It's the school's fault, not Popeyes," Pulley told Hellgren. "They should not be allowed to walk to Popeye's for lunch. Somebody needs to be held accountable for this, and I'm not talking about the shooter. I'm taking about the people who run our city."
