BALTIMORE _ The block in West Baltimore where a gunman opened fire on a Sunday afternoon cookout was quiet Monday morning, though bloodstains that remained on the sidewalk served as reminders of a chaotic crime scene the day before.
The shooting just after 5 p.m. left a 28-year-old man dead and seven people injured after a gunman opened fire on a neighborhood cookout at the corner of Edmondson and Whitmore avenues. A 58-year-old man, a 51-year-old man, a 30-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman, a 29-year-old man and two 27-year-old men were treated at hospitals for non-life threatening injuries.
Police had not identified a suspect or motive as of Monday. The suspect was previously described as a black man.
A man who said he attended the cookout said 30 some people turned out for the neighborhood get-together. The man, who declined to give his name, said they scattered when gunshots rang out.
Other neighbors lamented the shooting, even though they didn't witness it. LaSharon Sherman wasn't home when the shooting occurred, but she said she was alerted about the incident through her Citizen mobile app, which alerts users to nearby crime.
Sherman, who has lived in the area since 1952, said it was a sign of the area's change.
The neighborhood, known officially as Rosemont Homeowners/Tenants, has seen at least one other fatal shooting this year. A 25-year-old man, Jawan Armstrong, was shot to death on the same block March 14.
"I've seen the neighborhood change so much, and you know, shootings are everywhere," Sherman said. "It's changed because we have a lot of vacant houses now, because people have died out. ... It's not a whole lot of, you know, neighbors to really say, 'Hey ... you cant do this in my neighborhood.'"
Terrell Fuller, who works as a nurse in a community clinic, is among the area's newer residents. She moved to Baltimore from New York a year ago to a house around the corner from the shooting scene.
"There's a shooting almost every other week. The church around the corner here does more funerals than you would believe," Fuller said. "Kids are finding themselves alone and having to take care of themselves."
She said she's witnessed a lot of hopelessness and anger through her work in the community.
"Being a New Yorker, we're supposed to be one of the most aggressive people there are," Fuller said. "There's a lot of aggression in this state and it's bigger than what I've seen in New York."
Still, she said she's hopeful for her neighborhood's future.
"It's so much room for something great to take place here," Fuller said. "I believe in promise because everywhere you look you see something happening. So it's gonna come. It's just who is gonna help facilitate it, that's the problem."
