Violent Baltimore Weekend: Driver shot in face, 4 killed including man set on fire
BALTIMORE -- Police have yet to make an arrest in a brutal crime that was reported on Sunday morning.
That is when they found a dead body that had been set on fire in a vacant lot in the 1000 block of East 20th Street near North Avenue and Greenmount Cemetery.
On Monday, all that remained at the spot where their body was discovered was some crime tape and the white sheet police used to conceal their body.
A new CitiWatch crime camera monitors the block.
The killing has rattled neighbors who have lived in the community for decades.
"I've been over here since 1978," Robert Allen told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. "It makes you feel like you're afraid to come out of your house at certain times."
Another neighbor, Vanessa, who declined to give her last name, said she was afraid to leave her home too.
"We've got demons out here now," she said. "They're jumping into people. You don't know what's going on. It's devastating for somebody to do that to somebody."
According to reports, the body was bound with a plastic bag over the victim's head.
One witness who declined to speak on camera told Hellgren he smelled the fire early Sunday morning and flagged down police.
Another witness who asked that we not use her name said, "He was just laying there on fire. You just see his head in a ball of flames."
Baltimore has seen several similarly brutal crimes this year including a man shot and then set on fire inside a vacant row home in Carrollton Ridge in May.
The East Baltimore homicide is one of at least four since Friday in Baltimore City.
Five more people were shot. They survived their injuries, including a person shot in the face while driving in the 1000 block of East Patapsco Avenue early Friday morning.
Also, just after 10:30 a.m. Monday, a 30-year-old man was shot in the hand in what police characterized as a "dispute" on Russell Street near the Horseshoe Casino.
Police also reported 27 robberies. They made 57 arrests over the weekend, 31 of them were for aggravated assault cases.
"They don't have respect for life," Vanessa said.
If you have any information about these crimes, you can contact Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-Lockup. You can remain anonymous with your tips.
