A shooting in Baltimore on Tuesday prompted the mayor of the gun violence-plagued city to issue a statement urging criminals to cease fire, at least until the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young told reporters on Wednesday he’d directed the city’s police commissioner to do “everything in his power” to fight crime during the coronavirus crisis.
Five coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the city.
“We cannot clog our hospitals with their beds with people who are being shot senselessly because we are going to need those beds for people who might be infected with the coronavirus, and it could be your mother, your grandmother or one of your relatives,” Young said.
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“So, take that under consideration and put down the guns.”
A man armed with a rifle allegedly shot seven people on Tuesday night in the Madison Park neighborhood, CBS affiliate WJZ-TV reported.
It was the city’s 111th non-fatal shooting of the year.
According to FBI statistics, Baltimore, with 2,027, had the third-most incidents of violent crime per 100,000 residents in 2017.
In July, President Donald Trump stoked controversy by calling Rep. Elijah Cummings’ district in Baltimore, “dangerous” and a “rodent infested mess.”
The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story in March of last year headlined “The Tragedy of Baltimore.”
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The feature piece described how, in the wake of the 2015 riots, the city descended into “nothing less than a failure of order and governance the likes of which few American cities have seen in years.”
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