BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: A 20-year-old man has died after as many as 30 people were shot in a brutal mass shooting at a Baltimore block party. An 18-year-old woman was also killed in the mass shooting.
Kylis Fagbemi was pronounced dead at a local hospital after suffering gunshot wounds on Sunday, July 2 when at least two suspects opened fire on a group of people at an unpermitted neighborhood block party in the Brooklyn community of South Baltimore. Baltimore police officers responded to the scene at around 12:35 am after receiving multiple calls of a reported shooting in the 800 block of Gretna Avenue.
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Upon their arrival, officers found at least 30 people, ranging from the ages of 13 to 32 years old, suffering from gunshot wounds. One 18-year-old teen, identified as Aaliyah Gonzales, was pronounced dead at the scene while Fagbemi was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. 19 people were brought to MedStar Harbour Hospital's emergency room, where it was discovered to be “suffering varying degrees of injury from gunshot wounds,” said Debra Schindler, MedStar Health's regional director of media and public relations, according to NBC News. Nine patients were transferred to other Baltimore trauma centers, and the rest had been treated and released by Sunday afternoon.
Who was Kylis Fagbemi?
Not much has been known about Fagbemi but officials shared his picture on Facebook and urged people to send in any information regarding the young man. On Sunday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott mourned Fagbemi and Gonzales’ death saying, “This was a reckless, cowardly act that happened here. We will not stop until we find those cowards who decided to just shoot dozens of people, causing two people to lose their lives. And we're going to be here until we find them until we hold them accountable until they are held accountable for the actions they took because we cannot rest until they do so.”
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Baltimore Police Acting Commissioner Richard Worley noted that “at least two” suspects opened fire during the shooting but authorities are investigating there may have been more. “All we know right now is that we had multiple (shooters) open fire on a large crowd of people who were out during the block party. We don’t know if they were targeted or if (the shooters) were just shooting indiscriminately down the street,” Worley said in a Sunday afternoon news conference, CNN reports. Authorities have not shared information about a potential motive.
'They were running for their lives'
A witness previously told FOX45 News that they heard 20 to 30 shots fired. "They just kept going off," the witness said. Another witness Terry Brown revealed that when the fire started, he saw people running from the courtyard, jumping fences, and calling for loved ones. "They were running for their lives," Brown said, adding that he saw neighbors putting compression on a girl’s body, who had been shot during the rampage. "It was so many kids. It was chaos," Brown said, adding, "Parents were running around looking for their children, hollering and screaming, and don't know if their children have a bullet in them." The violence comes as federal prosecutors in Baltimore this week touted their efforts to reduce violent crime in the city.
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