A 12-year-old girl died in the crossfire when two men opened fire near a Baltimore youth football homecoming, a parking spat that wounded three adults and left suspects free by nightfall.
Gunfire tore through the area around Leon Day Park in Baltimore on Saturday as a youth football homecoming was underway, and a child who appeared to be watching the games never made it home.
Fox News reported that Baltimore police responded about 6:15 p.m. to the 1200 block of North Franklintown Road after multiple calls about shots fired. Officers found a 12-year-old girl and a 25-year-old woman with apparent gunshot wounds. The girl was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead. Three adults ended up with gunshot wounds and were listed in stable condition.
Police said two adult men allegedly opened fire on each other during a dispute believed to have started over a parking space. The child was caught in the middle.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley did not soften the description at a news conference.
Worley said:
"What we know is that there was some type of argument between two cowards, and of course, they both opened fire on each other."
He continued:
"In the crossfire, a 12-year-old little girl who was probably down there watching football was shot and killed."
That is the core of the case police described: not a robbery in progress, not a targeted hit on a child, but two men who turned a parking argument into gunfire next to a kids’ football event.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott spoke in blunt terms about what the city lost.
Scott said:
"Two grown men got into an argument and now a 12-year-old is gone."
He also said:
"What happened out here today is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in my life."
And he pointed to the long trail of grief that follows a child’s murder:
"We're never gonna see her full potential."
Scott added that the girl’s family, classmates, and community would hurt for the rest of their lives.
Besides the 12-year-old who died, police described three other victims. Officers found the 25-year-old woman with an apparent gunshot wound at the scene. A 28-year-old man and a 23-year-old man later walked into area hospitals seeking treatment for gunshot wounds. All three adults were in stable condition as of Saturday evening.
As of late Saturday night, Baltimore police had announced no arrests. Homicide detectives were searching for at least two suspects. Officials asked the public for tips through Baltimore homicide detectives at 410-396-2100 and through Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP, with anonymous tips accepted.
Authorities had not released the girl’s name in the account above, nor the identities of the wounded adults or the men police were hunting. No weapon recoveries, casing counts, or suspect descriptions appeared in that reporting. No charges had been announced by late Saturday night.
The setting makes the failure plain. Families gathered at Leon Day Park for a youth football homecoming. Children were supposed to be the story. Instead, police say two men could not settle a parking dispute without guns, and a 12-year-old watching football was killed in the crossfire.
Worley labeled the shooters cowards. Scott called the scene one of the most disgusting things he had ever seen. Both men spoke after the fact. The suspects, by late Saturday, were still outstanding.
Parents who bring kids to a city park for football should not have to calculate crossfire risk over a parking space. When grown men answer a petty argument with guns next to a youth homecoming, the price is paid by a child who never chose the fight, and by a city that still had no one in custody when the night ended.
