It is the kind of timeline that can wear a city down: at 2 p.m., three people were shot, a half hour later another person was shot along Annapolis Road, then yet another triple shooting across the city on North Luzerne just after five and less than an hour later, a double shooting on Reisterstown Road.
"They was we are dealing with violence because somebody doesn't do what you want them to do or somebody didn't do what you asked them to do or somebody just violated what you thought they should have done is out of control," said Mayor Catherine Pugh.
It can seem that way, but as police comb through the names of the victims and even some suspects from yesterday’s four shootings in four hours, it reads like a familiar roster rather than random names; a predictable cycle of violence.
"None of them are unfamiliar,” said Baltimore Police Chief T.J. Smith, “In fact three of the shooting victims from yesterday were previous shooting victims, two of them in the past month so it is just a real sad state of affairs that we are not only continuing to deal with the same people that are committing the crimes, we are dealing with some of the same people that are victims of some of these crimes."
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Pastor Reginald Thomas of Greater Gethesamane Baptist Church says it's a battle between good and evil.
“I definitely think we are in a fight. I think we are in a war," the pastor said.
And one of its battles was fought just beside his East Baltimore church yesterday with that triple shooting on North Luzerne, including one wheel chair bound victim.
The pastor just had a prayer walk last Saturday to pray for this neighborhood, spiritually he knows good will win the day...but yesterday's shooting beside his church is certainly frustrating.
"Spiritually speaking I think the fight is fixed, I think ultimately we win but I think the here and now of it, the day to day of it...oh man it is frustrating, it really is. We've got to do better," Thomas said.
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