A local resident told Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks about a fatal shooting in which a group of men in their 30s started running when two younger men pulled up in a car, drew guns and said, “Don’t nobody move!” They shot, said the resident, “because they can. Because they have guns and they said, ‘Don’t nobody move,’ and the [victims] ran. What in the world are we going to do with these young black guys out here killing each other? What do we do about that mentality — young men who kill each other in a heart beat?”
Nonfatal shootings in Baltimore are down significantly, and while the homicide rate is ahead of last year’s pace, when Baltimore recorded a 20-year low, there are still far fewer killings than we saw all through the bloody 1990s, Rodricks says. Still, when you measure the violence based on its population, Baltimore is the second-deadliest city in the country.