BALTIMORE _ Baltimore reached 300 homicides for the fourth straight year after a 30-year-old man was fatally shot in the face and upper body late Wednesday night.
The man was fatally shot in Sandtown-Winchester just before midnight, following three other non-fatal shootings in city.
Though the city has again hit the 300 mark, homicides are down 10 percent from last year and other crime categories are trending down as well, interim police Commissioner Gary Tuggle said in an interview this week with The Baltimore Sun.
"It's a number that I pay close attention to, but I also pay close attention to homicide No. 1, homicide No. 100, homicide 200," Tuggle said. "At the end of the day, they all deserve an equal amount of urgency."
In addition to homicides, non-fatal shootings are down five percent, robberies are down 14 percent, and burglaries are down a third.
Tuggle has not only had to combat crime during his tenure, but also lead the department at a turbulent time, marked by leadership turnover, the federal racketeering convictions of eight officers with the Gun Trace Task Force and the implementation of a federal consent decree.
Tuggle is the police department's third commissioner this year, after Kevin Davis was fired in January, and his replacement, Darryl De Sousa, resigned in May after being charged with failing to file his federal taxes. Mayor Catherine Pugh has selected Fort Worth, Texas, police Chief Joel Fitzgerald for the top job, but he still must be confirmed by the City Council.
Tuggle credited the city's recent declines to a violence reduction initiative, which brings police and other critical city agency heads together daily to discuss the city's most troubled neighborhoods. Addressing other needs, such as transportation, health or employment in crime-ridden neighborhoods, has contributed to less crime, Tuggle said.
"I think it is progress. Obviously, it is incremental progress. I think that goes to our overall strategy, " he said.
Last year, Baltimore's 300th homicide was committed Nov. 2, and the year ended with 342, a per capita record.
In 2016, the city passed the mark again, with 318 homicides. The previous year, Baltimore broke 300 homicides for the first time since 1999, and that year ended with 342 homicides.
Before 2015, Baltimore hadn't had 300 homicides in a single year since the 1990s, which by body count was the deadliest decade in the city's history. Breaking 300 was a common occurrence back then.
Still, the death rate wasn't what it is now, because there were about 100,000 more residents in the city then.
The official homicide count can change. Police are sometimes delayed in determining a death as a homicide, and sometimes deaths initially identified as homicides can be reclassified. For example, the death of a man who collapsed after a fight at a McDonald's on North Avenue on Wednesday has not been officially ruled a homicide. Another death this year initially reported as a homicide on North Howard Street has since been determined to be a self-defense case.
To combat crime, Tuggle said the department has also used officers more efficiently, having reassigned more of them from other duties _ including administrative positions _ to patrol.
"We get them back to the street," he said.
The department made the decision to beef up the patrol ranks at the end of September, after 17 people were killed in a week.
The department this year also created a new specialized unit, the Anti-Crime Section, a group of plainclothes officers tasked with addressing known violent groups working in Baltimore. Plainclothes units were disbanded last year by then-commissioner Davis after the federal indictments of the Gun Trace Task Force officers.
When asked about the use of specialized units in the crime fight, Tuggle said it is "every officer's responsibility is to get guns off the street."
The Anti-Crime Section consists of two sergeants and 12 officers assigned to each half of the city.
Tuggle said crime reduction in Baltimore will take time and persistence.
"It's not like you can wave a magic wand and suddenly crime is reduced. It takes a collective effort of a number of things, it's multidimensional so you need multiple agencies and organizations" without silos, he said.
"Crime in Baltimore didn't happen overnight, and it's not going to be fixed overnight."
The city's latest homicide victim was shot around 11:30 p.m. in the 1800 block of Baker St. Officers located the man and transported him to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police have not released his name.
Three other men were injured in shootings in the city overnight.
A 29-year-old man was shot in the buttocks, back and leg around 9:25 p.m. in the 3700 block of Crestfield Ct. in Northwest Baltimore.
Police said Thursday morning he was taken to a hospital where his condition is unknown.
Less than half an hour later, officers were called to a hospital in Northeast Baltimore where a 27-year-old man was being treated for a gunshot wound to the foot.
Police said the victim was in the 5800 block of Belair Road where he was approached by an unidentified man armed with a handgun, attempting to rob the victim.
The victim attempted to flee the area when he told police he was shot.
Just after midnight Thursday, police said a 21-year-old was shot in the stomach in Belair-Edison.
Police said the victim was shot in the 3000 block of Mayfield, and was taken to a local hospital.
