Crime Scene in North Baltimore
I wasn’t in my door 1 hour before gunshots rang out in my neighborhood.
Fresh back in town from a short family vacation to celebrate my milestone birthday, I was hoping to ease back into city life. At least looking forward to a lazy, uneventful Saturday afternoon/evening before the bells of Sunday morning started ringing calling all clergy to their collars.
Not so.
Not two hours after my plane touched down at BWI, while standing on my porch catching up with my neighbor and checking on my plants; gunshots boomed through the air. Eight loud shots.
I began shaking my head as three children riding their bicycles began hightailing it toward home. Seniors came out on their porch and everyone began looking down the street. Everyone in the neighborhood knows from which direction trouble tends to come in this community.
The sirens began blaring and before unzipping my suitcase, I grabbed my camera bag and made my way to the epicenter of the latest episode of street violence in North Baltimore.
While walking to the scene of the crime, I walked past one home where the news must have just been shared. A woman came running out of her screen door frantically inquiring of the young men who were walking in the opposite direction:
“Who got shot? Who got shot?!”
“Pootie got shot,” one of the young men said. Another motioned with his hands indicating that the victim was shot in his torso area.
“Sh*t!” she screamed while racing in the direction of the ambulance and telling those she left on the porch to call someone else with the news.
I arrived at the scene – a place that I often ride by on my bicycle or walk by with my son during our morning exercise walks – and saw a picture that has become far too familiar. A crowd of youth. Elders on their porch or just inside their gates and a swarm of police officers, medics, and a fire truck blocking the street. As evidence to the normalcy of these types of events, less than 50 feet from the yellow tape, a carpenter was working on the porch of the adjacent house. Fresh, untreated wood made up new steps and handrail. He was sanding it down to give it a smooth finish seemingly unfazed by the commotion around him.
The EMT’s emerged from the high grass of a vacant lot – the place of the shooting – escorting a young man strapped to a stretcher inside the back of their ambulance.
“I love you!” a teenage girl screamed out as the back doors were closed.
I took out my camera and began taking photographs of the scene. After about 5 or 6 shots, I saw two officers pointing over in my direction. Here we go. Officer Wilder began marching over to me.
“No need putting that camera away,” he said. Stooping down I raised 1 finger motioning to him that he needed to give me a moment. I put my camera away.
He walked up on me and barked, “YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS A CRIME SCENE AND YOU CAN’T TAKE PICTURES OF A CRIME SCENE. YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW. THOSE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MINE!”
“First, you need to bring your tone down,” I calmly replied.
“DON’T TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB!”
“I’m not telling you how to do your job, but I’m here because this is my community and perhaps a part of the problem is that when you all arrive on scenes like this you treat everyone as if they’re suspects – even those who are trying to do what they can to make things safer.”
He continued barking and again reminded me that those pictures were “his.”
I wasn’t up on my rights as a “street journalist” at that minute so I took out the camera and deleted a couple of pictures for his satisfaction. (Obviously, the picture above lets you know that I didn’t delete them all.)
Then I zoned in on his name badge. “My name’s Wilder!” he growled, “and you have a problem you can go take it up with my Sergeant.”
“Which one is your Sergeant?” I asked.
“The one in the white shirt with the three stripes. You don’t know a sergeant when you see one?” he quipped while walking away.
I felt sorry for him as he walked away. For one – he obviously was infected with megalomania – an obsession with power that intoxicates many “enforcers of the law” (by the way I received a phone call shortly after I left the scene that verified my suspicion that Officer Wilder had made up the “law” against taking pictures of crime scenes.)
Secondly, I felt sorry for Officer Wilder of the Northern Police District because he probably didn’t believe me when I told him that he would see me again. (Yea, I’m one of those letter-writing, pop up at the police station house, meet with your superiors, change police policy type of citizens that thinks I own my neighborhood.)
But much bigger than anything that happened between Officer Wilder and I – I felt most sorry for the mother who received a nightmarish phone call about her son being shot on the windy Saturday afternoon the day before Mother’s Day 2010. I felt sorry for the mother and family who received a call that their son had been arrested for the attempted murder of another young man on the day before Mother’s Day.
I feel sorry for this community that is slowly waking up to the reality that we have a problem on our hands that will not go away with wishful thinking or even one-time passionate rallies. Groups like my community association – the Winston Govans Community Association and York Road Alternatives for Youth are among the many organizations trying to make things better and safer here. Hopefully, the 18 churches and 1 mosque that adorn York Road (between 43rd Street and Northern Parkway) will find the motivation to come together, stay together, work together and proactively engage disconnected youth and adults in North Baltimore as well.
Only time will tell, but in the meantime, I pledge to continue pouring myself out to make Baltimore (especially my piece of Baltimore) a better place to live, grow, learn, and serve. As I type this, my sleeping 19 month old is resting in my arms and I know that he and the many children that God has blessed our city with demand and deserve nothing less.
Vacation is over. I’m back and with another year under my belt, I’m ready to re-engage the beautiful struggle.
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