After Baltimore mass shooting, neighborhood goes full year with no homicides

BALTIMORE (AP) — As Baltimore gun violence continues trending downward after years of rampant bloodshed, a historically troubled neighborhood in the city’s southwest corner is celebrating a long-awaited victory: zero homicides in over a year.

The numbers are especially meaningful for the Brooklyn community, where a mass shooting in July 2023 tore through an annual summer block party, leaving two people dead and 28 others injured in the courtyard of an aging public housing development. Most of the victims were teens and young adults.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the city’s flagship anti-violence program Safe Streets ramped up its work in the area, and officials say the efforts have paid off. On Tuesday afternoon, residents and city leaders gathered near the scene of the mass shooting to mark a year’s worth of progress.

“This isn’t just a Safe Streets accomplishment. It’s a testament to Brooklyn’s resilience and the power of community,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said. “This is a community that has been disinvested, neglected and ignored for a long, long time. But together, collectively, we are saying enough is enough.”

Across the city, homicides are down about 24% compared to this time last year. That’s on top of a roughly 20% decline in 2023, when Baltimore recorded less than 300 homicides for the first time in nearly a decade, ending a surge that began in 2015 following the death of Freddie Gray and widespread civil unrest.

Violent crime has also decreased nationally after spiking during the pandemic.

Baltimore’s Safe Streets program has 10 offices based in some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. It was launched in 2007 and expanded in recent years under Scott’s administration, which has often pledged to treat violence as a public health crisis and address its root causes.

Safe Streets focuses on deescalating conflicts by employing mediators with credibility and knowledge of the streets. It’s inherently dangerous work as they form close relationships with individuals most at risk of becoming either perpetrators or victims of gun violence. Officials said reaching out to young people is key.

Adanus Sprillium, 22, said he recently enrolled in a residential job readiness program that was recommended by Safe Streets workers in Brooklyn. He had his first GED class last week. Sprillium said he was previously struggling with drug addiction and homelessness.

“I probably would’ve ended up being dead or in jail,” he said.

A community survey conducted in the weeks after the Brooklyn mass shooting showed that many neighborhood residents placed more trust in Safe Streets than Baltimore police, local schools, nonprofits and other institutions, according to city officials. Only neighborhood churches ranked higher.

Even still, having Safe Streets workers present during the block party wasn’t enough to prevent it from ultimately devolving into chaos and bloodshed.

Baltimore police received sharp criticism for their response to the event. A report pointed to potential officer bias after finding police ignored multiple warning signs and failed to take proactive measures in the hours before gunfire broke out. Critics questioned whether police would have responded differently if the shooting occurred in a more affluent area.

The department announced discipline charges against a dozen officers earlier this year.

Five teenagers were arrested in connection with the shooting. Four of them have since pleaded guilty to various charges.

Sean Wees, the director of Safe Streets’ Brooklyn site, said many staff members have deep roots in the community. The team doubled down on promoting safety and connecting residents with services in response to the shooting. But Wees said there’s still more work to do.

“We work to promote peace and progress here in Brooklyn,” he said during Tuesday’s gathering. “We can’t stop until this kind of ceremony is no longer necessary — until peace is the standard and not a streak measured in days or months.”

Adanus Sprillium, 22, pauses during an interview with The Associated Press, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Community members applaud as Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott speaks during a press conference to celebrate achieving over 365 days without a homicide within the Brooklyn neighborhood Safe Streets catchment zone, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, center, speaks during a press conference to celebrate achieving over 365 days without a homicide within the Brooklyn neighborhood Safe Streets catchment zone, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott speaks during a press conference to celebrate achieving over 365 days without a homicide within the Brooklyn neighborhood Safe Streets catchment zone, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Sean Wees, director of Safe Streets' Brooklyn site, speaks during a press conference to celebrate achieving over 365 days without a homicide within the Brooklyn neighborhood Safe Streets catchment zone, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, right, embraces Adanus Sprillium during a press conference to celebrate achieving over 365 days without a homicide within the Brooklyn neighborhood Safe Streets catchment zone, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lawyers for the state of Louisiana asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to immediately block a judge's ruling ordering education officials to tell all local districts that a law requiring schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge John deGravelles in Baton Rouge declared the law “unconstitutional on its face” in a lengthy decision Tuesday and ordered education officials to notify the state’s 72 local school boards of that fact.

The state plans to appeal the entirety of deGravelles’ order, but the emergency appeal at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is aimed at just one aspect of it. State attorneys say the judge overstepped his authority when he ordered that all local school boards be notified of his finding because only five districts are named as defendants in a legal challenge to the law.

Those districts are in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Tammany, Orleans and Vernon parishes.

Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley and the state education board are also defendants in the lawsuit and were ordered by deGravelles to take no steps to implement the law.

But the state contends that because officials have no supervisory power over local, elected school boards, the order applies to just the five boards.

The law was passed by the Republican-dominated Legislature this year and signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry in June.

In Tuesday's ruling, deGravelles said the law has an “overtly religious” purpose and rejected state officials’ claims that the government can mandate the posting of the Ten Commandments because they hold historical significance to the foundation of U.S. law.

His opinion noted that no other foundational documents such as the Constitution or the Bill of Rights are required to be posted.

Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill, a GOP ally of Landry, said Tuesday that the state disagrees with deGravelles’ finding.

FILE - Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks alongside Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry during a press conference regarding the Ten Commandments in schools Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, in Baton Rouge, La. (Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate via AP, File)