As Baltimore’s mayor on Wednesday consoled the family of a hospital worker used as a human shield during a gang shooting downtown, elected officials and community activists called on the city to do more to combat gang violence.
The killing of Brandon Finney, a 25-year-old Maryland Shock Trauma Center technician, has rattled the city. He was waiting to catch a bus home after working a night shift Sunday when, police say, members of the Black Guerrilla Family targeted a rival Bloods member, who pulled Finney in front of him. Both died.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Finney was “a young man doing what we expect young men to be doing — working hard to provide for their families.”
“Despite our sorrow, we have to keep fighting for a safer city,” Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. “We all must work together to attain lasting change, and to save more families the pain that Brandon’s family is enduring right now.”
The Rev. Cortly “C.D.” Witherspoon said the senselessness of the killing — Finney was the latest innocent victim in a city that has seen 160 homicides so far this year — has reinvigorated discussions in the community about crime.
“He was out and about minding his own business,” Witherspoon said. “It’s systematic of the issues we have in this city.”
“I see a lot of senseless crime and violence,” said Finney’s sister, Tiara. She described her brother as a good person “going down the right path. There was never a day where he wasn’t smiling or joking.”
The shooting occurred at the corner of Saratoga and North Paca streets on downtown’s west side, an area targeted for redevelopment near Lexington Market and the University of Maryland School of Law.
At the scene Wednesday, business owners said they hoped the incident wouldn’t scare potential customers, while some commuters said they are contemplating changing their routines.
Tiffany Thompson, a 23-year-old, first-year nursing student at the Community College of Baltimore County, said she’s considering ditching the bus she takes to work every day.
“It makes me uncomfortable,” the Edmondson Village resident said as she stood waiting for a bus. “I’m going to start driving. … You never know what could’ve happened. It’s just ridiculous.”
Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership, said that “there is some increased anxiety” over the incident. He also pointed to recent events, including those commemorating the 200th anniversary of the national anthem, that have taken place without major incidents.
“I don’t think anybody feels this is a common occurrence,” he said.
The double-homicide has brought gang violence back to the forefront. Police made the Black Guerrilla Family a top target last year. The Tree Top Piru gang, the Bloods subset to which the second victim allegedly belonged, became a prime target years ago when prosecutors brought a racketeering indictment related to the notorious “Stop Snitching” video.
Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke said she’s been contemplating what more the city could do to prevent “such mindless tragedies.” She said Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, whose career was spent in California, came to the city well-prepared to take on gangs.
“We know how to address this gang issue and [Batts] came here with experience at doing it, and I think we need to ratchet that up. That young man will not be brought back; his family, fiance, his child have lost him. We need to do much better by families and by Baltimore itself, whatever that takes.
“These gangs need to be taken down in this city. We need to do that.”
Baltimore police did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
In his first month on the job, Batts said the Black Guerrilla Family was “expanding its reign,” and last year amid an increase in both murders and nonfatal shootings, police largely attributed the violence to the gang.
Authorities connected the gang to several high-profile cases, including a contraband smuggling scheme at the city jail, and touted a series of large-scale indictments against members in the fall.
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