16 hours ago
Eight people hit in two shootings in Baltimore
Eight people, including two young teenagers, were wounded Monday evening in two separate quadruple shootings in Baltimore, city officials said.
A 19-year-old man was in critical condition after the second of the shootings, but the other seven victims in the two attacks appeared to be in non-life-threatening condition, said Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley.
The 19-year-old was one of four people shot around 9:40 p.m. in the 2500 block of Edmondson Avenue, officials said. The other three shot there were all older, and one was 66.
The first of the two shootings occurred shortly before 7 p.m. about a mile and a half to the south in the 1900 block of Ramsay Street, police said.
Two teenagers, both 14, were wounded in that shooting. The two other victims were a man and a woman; the woman was grazed.
No motive was given in either shooting, and no arrests were reported.
The question was raised at a news conference whether the shootings might have been associated with Monday's extreme heat.
'When it gets warm,' Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott responded, officials in Baltimore and elsewhere 'see things pick up.' But he said the city had nevertheless cut down on crime last year even in the hot weather season.
At least in part, he ascribed the shootings to the presence and availability of guns, which are used 'to resolve whatever conflicts' may exist.
The first shooting, on Ramsay Street, which occurred well before dark, was heard by police assigned to the area because of recent crime there, Worley said.
In that shooting, police said, at least two people emerged from a vehicle and opened fire in the direction of the four victims, who were in or near an alley, police said.
Police said it was too early to determine whether the two attacks were connected.
Scott called on residents of the communities involved to aid the police investigation, asking them to treat the shootings as if one of their relatives had been a victim.
'Somebody out there knows what happened,' he said.
