BALTIMORE _ Baltimore has lost 300 people to homicide for the fifth consecutive year.
On Thursday, police confirmed the staggering total, which has become an unofficial milestone for marking Baltimore's struggle to quell extreme violence.
Four young children are counted among this year's victims, including one infant, 2-month old Elsie Cottman, who died in May, allegedly at the hand of her father.
Also in May, Caleb Carter, 7, died in Baltimore County from injuries stemming back to a 2012 case, when his parents were arrested and charged with child abuse in the city, according to the medical examiner. City detectives re-classified the toddler's death as a homicide in October.
A 2-year-old boy, Trevor Graham, died of blunt force trauma in January; a family friend has been charged and is awaiting trial.
Malachi Lawson, 4, was found dead in a Baltimore dumpster with untreated burns in early August. His mother and her wife were arrested and charged. The little boy is remembered for having an infectious smile and an affinity for "Paw Patrol."
The most common ages for a homicide victim are 25 and 27; so far this year, around 43% of victims were in their 20s. These include 24-year-old Markel Jackson, who was shot to death in July, and 27-year-old Donye Lowther, who was killed in a September carjacking.
Two hundred sixty-seven victims were male; 29 were female. Bailey Reeves, a 17-year-old transgender woman from Rockville, died after being shot in the torso in early September. Reeves was one of at least three transgender women killed in Maryland in 2019. Jennyfer Velazquez, 19, was killed at the end of May while walking to get ice cream.
Broadway East and Central Park Heights have experienced the highest year-over-year increases in homicides, with 12 and 11 homicides each, compared with 4 and 5 as of this time last year. The homicide count in Brooklyn has dropped from 11 to 5; Edmonson Village, which saw 6 homicides by this time last year, has recorded none so far in 2019. About a third of homicides happened in the Western and Eastern police districts.
Some victims, like Michele Blanding, died as a result of incidents occurring several years ago. Blanding, who died in May at the age of 59, was shot and wounded nearly a quarter century ago. Alfredo Brathwaite, who was shot and paralyzed in 2000, succumbed to his injuries in March at the age of 40. Quinton Rodgers, 31, also died in March, after being shot multiple times in 2004. All three deaths were ruled homicides.
Police have not released the race of every homicide victim; in past years, when records were more complete, the vast majority _ more than 90% _ of victims were black.
The 300 figure for homicides is a symbolic benchmark set during the 1990s, when the city, which had about 100,000 more residents, averaged upwards of 320 murders each year.
Last year, there were 309 homicides in Baltimore, or 51 per 100,000 people who live in the city _ the highest rate of any American city with more than 500,000 people, according to FBI data. The city's homicide rate reached a record high in 2017.
The official police tally does not include the deaths of Gregory Sinclair, 31, whose killing in January the State's Attorney's Office ruled as self-defense, or that of a 49-year-old man, who was killed in October from what police now say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head while arguing with his brother.
