Police are investigating what they believe is a targeted, drug-related incident that started as a home invasion and ended in the deadly shooting of a Baltimore woman.
Around 12:25 a.m. June 3, officers responded to the area around the 900 block of Allendale Avenue to investigate a home invasion. When they arrived, officers found a 42-year-old woman lying outside the home with a gunshot wound to the neck.
Police said several men went into the home, demanded drugs and money, then shot and killed the woman when she ran away while the home was being ransacked.
"It looks like there's a drug nexus to this," said Baltimore Police spokesman TJ Smith. Smith said the incident is not related to recent attacks involving women in the Park Heights neighborhood in northwest Baltimore.
See: 3 women assaulted or murdered in a 1-mile radius of Park Heights
While detectives were still in the early stages of their investigation, Smith said it's possible the victim may not have been the intended target.
"I don't know if that's the case in this scenario, but we do know that the bad guys entered this home looking for drugs and money," he said.
Area residents like Andrew Conten, who's lived in the area for 42 years, said the neighborhood has changed drastically in recent years.
"I was surprised this morning," Conten said of seeing police crime scene tape cordoning off a portion of the block when he awoke Friday morning.
"You usually don't see nothing like this," he said.
Homicide detectives are investigating the case as a murder and asking anyone with information to call 410-396-2100. Anyone who wishes to remain anonymous can call the Metro Crime Stopper’s Hotline at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
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