Three murders Thursday night pushed Baltimore city to 300 homicides yet again, but this year it happened much faster than the previous two years.
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"We're at this number of 300 that a lot of people focus on and it's a grim number. No one is happy about that at all but we weren’t happy at 200 and we weren’t happy at 100," said Baltimore Police Chief T.J. Smith.
The numbers are bleak.
Baltimore has been on a record pace for violence all year and it seems it may finish that way, but at least one organization is just getting started.
"If it is completely dark out here, all we need is one candle to change the way it all looks."
Erricka Bridgeford started Baltimore Ceasefire this summer.
It is a message she spread through the city back in August to not to kill anyone for one full weekend.
The signs are back up along North Avenue; nobody kill anyone from today through Sunday.
Bridgeford is doing these weekends quarterly now and as the city reaches 300 killings, it is time for a Ceasefire once again.
"It's bleak. I am not ignoring how dark it is. I am just saying the darkness can come on because we are ready. We are pushing for, we are remembering that we can change this. There is a time in Baltimore's future where there will not be this kind of violence."
And that's the point of these campaigns Bridgeford says.
It is not a failure if someone is killed, rather a success for the amount of people her message reaches.
It is an important metric police say in the fight to reverse Baltimore's grim trend.
"This is a grassroots effort that continues to grow of people who want to be engaged and get people off the street that want to harm other people,” Chief Smith said, “That's important and that's happening this weekend and that's what matters."
