Vampire_Hunter_Bob
Cats are great
http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17308
Well I guess it couldn't have been expected to stay down two years in a row. This is looking pretty bad for Baltimore this year after what looked like a turning point in the murder rate last year.
Murders This Week: 9
Murders in 2008: 234
Murders in 2009: 7
As 2008 ended and 2009 began, Baltimore City continued its backslide. Though the city's 2008 homicide total was its lowest since 1988, there was an uptick in murders during the last two months of the year. The trend continues into the new year, with seven murders on record for 2009 by Jan. 5, compared to just two at the same time last year.
Even though 2008's final homicide tally was markedly lower than that of 2007--234 homicides in 2008 vs. 282 in 2007--Baltimore's per capita homicide rate exceeds that of many neighboring cities. If Baltimore had Washington, D.C.'s homicide rate, there would only have been 202 murders here this year; if it had Philadelphia's, there would only have been 146; and if Baltimore had New York City's homicide rate, only 40 of its citizens would have lost their lives to violence this year.
The two women murdered last week have been identified. The woman shot in the head on Dec. 23 in the 800 block of South Bouldin Street in Canton was 22-year-old Alaina High. The woman shot repeatedly in the 1900 block of North Broadway, just south of Clifton Park, was Lisa Bushrod, a 42-year-old African-American.
At the end of 2008, one homicide victim from the year still has not been identified. A skeleton was found in a wooded area in the 4800 block of Strathdale Road in Frankford on April 30. Police know the victim was male and was shot to death but they still do not know his name.
Monday, Dec. 29
10:58 p.m. Police were called to the scene of a shooting in the 800 block of Chauncey Avenue in Reservoir Hill. When they arrived, they found a 37-year-old African-American woman shot. She had tried to escape the house, but collapsed in the doorway. She told police that Antonio Coby, a 28-year-old African-American man, had also been shot. He was lying on the kitchen floor. Coby had been shot in the head and was dead. The woman survived.
Tuesday, Dec. 30
12:23 p.m. Someone working on a sewer line in Leakin Park found a badly burned body in the woods. The body was that of Petro Taylor, a 20-year-old African-American man. Police later discovered that Taylor had been beaten to death in the 5800 block of Reisterstown Road. His body was then dumped in Leakin Park.
Thursday, Jan. 1
12:55 a.m. Just after midnight on New Year's Day, Mario Williams, a 31-year-old African-American man from Owings Mills, was shot in the head outside a bar at North Luzerne Avenue and East Monument Street in East Baltimore. He died at an area hospital at 8 p.m. that night.
Friday, Jan. 2
4:56 a.m. Police received a call for a shooting in the 1100 block of Orleans Street just two blocks from Baltimore's main Post Office. There they discovered Marcel Mitchell, a 20-year-old African-American man from East Baltimore, lying in the street shot numerous times. Glenn Cunnigham, a 22-year-old African-American man from Pikesville, was found in the vestibule of an apartment complex in the block. He had also been shot several times. Cunningham was dead. Mitchell was taken to an area hospital but was dead by the time he arrived.
5:37 p.m. Andre Thorpe, a 17-year-old African-American male, was shot in the head in the middle of the street in the 800 block of North Kenwood Avenue. He was taken to a nearby hospital in grave condition and died at the end of the week. This is the second homicide in the Madison-Eastend neighborhood in the first four days of 2009.
Sunday, Jan. 4
7:49 p.m. Trevane Ricks, a 16-year-old African-American male, and an as-yet-unidentified African-American girl, who police believe was also a minor, were shot at an apartment building in the 5600 block of Loch Raven Boulevard near Good Samaritan Hospital. Ricks was shot in the chest and died at a local hospital an hour later. The girl was shot in the side and died at 10:57 p.m. This is the second double homicide in the first four days of 2009.
8:40 p.m. People living in the 4000 block of Chesmont Avenue off Belair Road heard gunshots. When they went outside, they found Lougene Williams III, a 20-year-old African-American man, lying in the middle of the street shot in the right shoulder. He died at a local hospital that night.
Well I guess it couldn't have been expected to stay down two years in a row. This is looking pretty bad for Baltimore this year after what looked like a turning point in the murder rate last year.