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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
National
Jessica Anderson

Baltimore experiencing a violent week with 10 killed, 20 shot heading into the weekend

BALTIMORE — Baltimore Police are investigating another homicide after a man’s body was found near Leakin Park on Friday morning, continuing a violent week in which 10 people have been killed and another 20 injured in shootings.

Police received a call around 9 a.m. for an unresponsive person in the 4900 block of North Franklintown Road. Officers found a man with signs of trauma to his body, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have not released the man’s name.

So far this year, 155 people have been killed in Baltimore, and another 319 have been shot and injured, according to police data.

Police responded to two other homicides just before midnight Thursday.

At 11:57 p.m. , officers were called to the first block of Schroeder Street in the Poppleton neighborhood, where they found a 42-year-old man who had been shot in the head. A 11:58 p.m., officers in the Southwest District were called to the intersection of Poplar Grove and Brighton Street where a 38-year-old man had been stabbed.

Both victims were pronounced dead.

About an hour earlier, officers were called to a local hospital where a 22-year-old was being treated for a gunshot wound to the head. The victim told police he was shot while driving in the 1700 block of Franklin Street in Harlem Park.

On Wednesday, police responded to a mass shooting in the 2100 block of West Lexington Street in West Baltimore that left one person dead and five others injured.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison called that incident “a very brazen, very cowardly act of shooting indiscriminately into a block, where they hit six people and could have potentially hit and killed many others.”

On Friday, police identified the man killed in that incident as 59-year-old Leslie Jerome Gibson.

The injured included men age aged 44, 39, 33, 26, and a 16-year-old boy.

All six victims were on the same block of West Lexington Street when two to three suspects opened fire, police said, before fleeing the scene. Police have not announced any arrests.

Later on Wednesday, police were called to investigate a homicide just east of downtown in the Jonestown neighborhood.

Officers on patrol in the area heard gunfire in the 1000 block of Granby Street and found 43-year-old Lee Johnson, who was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound, police said.

Officers saw Devante Stewart leaving the scene. Police said Stewart, attempting to elude officers, carjacked a vehicle which he crashed it in the nearby 400 block of Asquith Street. He then pushed his way into an apartment in the block, as a resident was leaving, police said, and has been charged with murder and other crimes.

Police on Friday also identified several recent homicide victims, including 18 year-old Kozee Spriggs, whose decomposing body was found Tuesday in the 1300 block of Ensor Street.

Police have arrested and charged Kevin Dudley, 38, in her death. It is unclear if Dudley has an attorney; none was listed in online court records Friday.

Police also identified two other men killed in separate incidents on Tuesday.

Deandre Davis, 36, was killed and a 44-year-old man injured in a shooting in the 1600 block of Moreland Avenue Tuesday morning. Police also identified 24 year-old Cyril Lynch, who was killed in a shooting in the 5200 block of Belair Road, also on Tuesday morning.

And police identified 20-year-old Curtis Dunham, who was fatally shot just after 5 p.m., Monday in the 2400 block of Liberty Heights Avenue. Officers found Dunham laying on a sidewalk outside Dunkin Donuts by the Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore.

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