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Bing Maps street view captures homicide victim in Curtis Bay

Posted at 5:11 PM, Oct 24, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-25 08:20:48-04

A Bing Maps street view camera captured a homicide victim lying on the ground at the corner of Pennington Avenue and Hazel Street in Baltimore's Curtis Bay neighborhood. 

The images were taken April 29, 2015.

"Inevitably you're going to capture something in the millions and millions of roads that you go down across the world and this is just something they happened to capture here in Baltimore," said Baltimore City Police Spokesman T.J. Smith.

The Bing Maps street view car was driving down Pennington Avenue at around 4 p.m., moments after the shooting took place.

"When officers arrived they found a man suffering from several gunshot wounds and unfortunately this is what the street view images captured, the man still laying on the roadway and you can see him down on the ground," Smith said.

The man later died at the hospital. The Baltimore Police department did not comment on the identity of the victim. Baltimore Police also reached out to Microsoft asking them to take down the photos.

"What’s problematic about this, of course, is the insensitive nature of seeing something like this in plain view on these images, so we’re in contact with them. Hopefully this image will be distorted, blurred, or removed from their site very soon," Smith said.

As of Monday, the images were still public on Bing Maps. In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company is taking immediate steps to remove the image.

We were made aware today of a graphic image on Bing Maps and have taken immediate steps to remove it. We sincerely apologize for any distress this may have caused. While we rely on automated machine algorithms to protect privacy and blur faces and license plates, algorithms are not able to identify all issues with images. We provide feedback tools for reporting concerns and in this case are working to remove this tragic image from our servers as quickly as possible. We expect the process to be complete in a few hours. 

Matthew Smith lives in the area and said he was sitting on his front porch the day of the incident. He said the Bing Maps photo portrays the violence that's become more common in the neighborhood.

"It exactly depicts what's going on around here. We lay in our beds at night and hear gunshots. A friend of mine, his car dashboard got blown apart. Guys are driving down the street shooting out of the car, it's crazy around here," Matthew Smith said.

Police also weren't aware of the photo until Monday. They said they plan to look into it further and whether any other pictures captured that day can help with their investigation. The homicide remains unsolved. 

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