This is becoming almost numbingly frequent in Baltimore. ENOUGH. 2 teens shot -- and 1 dies of gunshot wounds -- each week in Baltimore City

By Gary Gately, The Baltimore Observer

Yet another Baltimore teenager has been gunned down, this one’s life cut short at age 16.

He died in a blaze of gunfire around 6 last night outside the A Plus Grocery & Deli in the 900 block of North Broadway, 2 1/2 blocks from Johns Hopkins Hospital. The double-shooting also injured a 26-year-old man, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

How long must we sing this song?

A youth 19 or younger is shot an average of at least twice a week in Baltimore City, and one dies of gunshot wounds every week. Overall, 138 days into 2023, 169 people have been murdered in Baltimore.

This latest carnage — no IDs yet, detectives haven’t yet notified relatives — gets the standard cop-rounds treatment: Four to five paragraphs in the paper and online news sites, 45 seconds or so on TV.

I always believed reporters, if they’re to serve as a mirror on reality, must strive to see the world through the eyes of others.

So maybe we should think:

What if that were my teen, wounded or killed by gunfire in Baltimore?

Maybe we should be protesting in the streets and doing whatever else humanly possible to stop this madness in a city that has counted more than 300 homicides each of the past eight years.

It should provide little solace that the death toll has dipped this year, as Baltimore remains among the most violent cities in America.

And we can’t put it all on the cops.

The BPD, bleeding officers for six years running and perennially understaffed, couldn’t stop this bloodletting even if at full force, with the number of corners in the poorer quarters where gunfire erupts routinely, especially at night.

All of us gotta come together if we’re ever to slow the hideous toll of gun violence.

We need safe neighborhoods with recreation and sidewalks and alleyways where kids can just be kids without gunfire being a soundtrack to their young lives.

Maybe you can help, and I can help.

Tutor a kid.

Be a Big Sister or Big Brother.

Be a surrogate mother or father to kids not blessed with one.

Be a mentor.

Give a damn.

Save a kid.

Save a life.

Save a city.

Refuse to accept this as the norm; another nameless victim, another makeshift memorial, more teddy bears and thoughts and prayers.

Enough.

This is our hometown.

Mine and yours.

These are our children, all of ours.

‘These grieving parents and friends and teammates and classmates, these grieving brothers and sisters — they are us and we are them, but for grace and circumstance.

This is our hometown.

‘This is my hometown.

And it’s so sad to watch a sweet thing die.

On another corner.

On another night.

In Baltimore.

If you spot any errors, want to share news tips, pitch story ideas or submit a first-person piece, please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you. Thanks again for reading. —?Gary Gately, Editor, The Baltimore Observer, [email protected], 410-382-4364.