BALTIMORE — One person is dead and six others are injured following a shooting at a neighborhood cookout Sunday evening in Baltimore.
The incident occurred just after 5 p.m. in the 2500 block of Edmondson Avenue on the west side of the city.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said a man walked up to the intersection of Whitmore Avenue where two cookouts were happening on either side of the street and began shooting indiscriminately into the crowd of people.
"It was an extremely targeted shooting," Harrison said.
He said the suspect ran off and so did one of the adult male victims who collapsed behind the nearby Perkins Square Baptist Church. He was pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Police say the other six victims are adults ranging from 27 to 58 years of age. One is a 30-year-old female and the rest were males. Police say their injuries are non-life threatening.
Detectives are only looking for one suspect at this time, but say there may have been a second shooter possibly returning fire at the suspect.
Harrison said it's going to take a community effort to track the shooter down.
"What we need now is for the people to have the same resilience and the same tenacity to go after him like he came after the people here today," Harrison said.
"People know who's doing these shootings and who's targeting different people, and for people not to come forward and say who has done this, looking for retaliation, that's not the way to go," said acting Mayor Jack Young.
Police originally said there was an eighth victim but now say that person is unrelated. Anyone with information should call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP.
