As Baltimore Police investigate Sunday’s mass shooting on Edmondson Avenue, Commissioner Richard Worley is pointing out a pattern.
“It continues to be young people that indiscriminately shoot weapons that they don’t know how to shoot and don’t know how to control and multiple people are getting hit,” Worley said.
Sunday’s mass shooting left two people dead and three more people hurt.
It comes days after another mass shooting in Highlandtown that left two people dead and three people hurt, including a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old.
Police have not said who is responsible for either of the mass shootings or how old they are, but police have seen back-to-back crimes involving young people in the past few weeks.
Early Sunday morning, Baltimore police arrested a 12-year-old, who has had contact with law enforcement before.
Police said he stole a car on North Gay Street near Ellsworth Street, drove away when police tried to stop the car, and then crashed into a home on West North Avenue near North Dukeland Street.
He was released and received a Child in Need of Supervision referral, a similar outcome to that of the 12-year-old boy who was driving a stolen car involved in a fatal crash.
“They don’t have the emotional intelligence yet to problem-solve and think really through their consequences,” said Erricka Bridgeford, the Executive Director of the Baltimore Community Mediation Center.
Bridgeford and the Baltimore Community Mediation Center work to give young people the tools they need to make good choices.
“We are working with young people,” said Bridgeford. “We are helping them understand brain science like how does their brain work when they feel disrespected, when they feel misunderstood, when they feel unseen, so that they also understand how to use the skills that we teach to help regulate their emotions.”
Roca Baltimore is doing something similar, building relationships, digging into the root cause of violence, and teaching young men to talk it out and pay attention to how they respond when they are angry.
“We tell the guys to pay attention to those things, identify your triggers and get out of a situation before you even have to pick up a gun,” said Tyrone Kent, the director of Roca Baltimore. “The main core value of our work is CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), getting the guys to understand and take that 10-to 12-second pause and then come up with a different decision.”
READ MORE:Baltimore mass shootings spur youth violence prevention push
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