BALTIMORE — A pregnant woman and a man were shot to death Thursday night in what Police Commissioner Michael Harrison is calling a brazen, deliberate and cowardly killing.
The victims, a 38-year-old pregnant woman and a man, were shot while sitting in their car in the 300 block of E. 23rd Street in East Baltimore, according to Baltimore Police.
Both were taken to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where they died, police said. The woman’s baby was delivered before she died and is in critical condition because of the emergency surgery, Harrison said.
“This was a very, very violent and brazen assault on two individuals, three individuals rather, in this block tonight,” Harrison said Thursday night. “And once again, we’re standing here talking about the brazenness, the cowardice, the deliberate attempt to harm and kill individuals with gun violence.”
Officers responded at about 8:10 p.m. for a shooting and found the pair suffering from gunshot wounds. The man was in the driver’s seat, and the expecting mother was a passenger.
“What we know right now is that the perpetrator’s vehicle — occupied by at least two individuals — drove into the block, pulled up next to the victims,” right as they parked and started shooting, Harrison said.
A person fired from the passenger window of the suspected vehicle while the driver got out of the car and fired, Harrison said.
The prevalence of guns and people’s willingness to use them in Baltimore City without fear of consequences is unfathomable, he added.
“We cannot have folks shooting at pregnant women in our city,” Mayor Brandon Scott said. “A baby is being brought into the world after their mother is shot and is on life support. If that doesn’t change your mind about what is happening in your community or check the people around you, I don’t know what will.”
____
