Baltimore Murder Rate: Weekend Shootings, Homicides Investigated, Following Post-Freddie Gray Crime Spike

This story has been updated.

UPDATE 2:00 p.m. EDT: Baltimore Police on Sunday confirmed an officer-involved shooting near an auto garage at Eleanora and Belvedere avenues in northwest Baltimore. Patrol officers were approached by a person who said they'd seen a suspect with a gun, according to a reporter with the Fox affiliate WBFF. The officers gave chase to the suspect, who ran into the auto garage. The officers then engaged the suspect and shot him at least once in the face. The suspect was transported to an area hospital. Police said they recovered a handgun on the scene.

Original story:

June could be shaping up to be another record-setting month in Baltimore in the wake of the city’s deadliest May in 45 years. Police said Sunday five people were shot overnight and at least one of the victims may not survive.

Two of the victims were young people shot in the back, police said. Homicide detectives also said they found a dead woman in a burning residence.

Law-enforcement officials in Baltimore indicated June’s first week had the month on pace to be another record-setter for crime. After both riotous demonstrations and peaceful protests over the police-involved death of Freddie Gray, officials said the city experienced 43 murders last month, its deadliest May since 1970.

The spike in homicides and other crimes prompted Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts to request federal help for its force of more than 3,000 officers. The city’s population was estimated to be 622,793 last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Amid the carnage Saturday, police said a man was found dead inside a home. Officers were called there at 1:23 p.m. EDT, when they found the man unresponsive with apparent trauma to his body. They have not yet determined the cause of his death, the Sun in Baltimore reported.

Detectives were also investigating a pair of shootings Saturday: A 20-year-old man, who was shot in the arm and foot by an unknown suspect, was taken to a hospital, and a 36-year-old man, who took a bullet to his chest, was also being treated at a hospital. Both men were expected to survive, police said.

Meanwhile, several dozen people met in the basement of a Baltimore church Saturday, to discuss their frustrations with police brutality, according to the Sun. It wasn’t clear whether the recent spike in crime was addressed during the discussion.

Several speakers at the forum applauded those who participated in the rioting, looting and arson that followed the death of Gray, who suffered a fatal spinal injury in police custody in April. Those speakers said people would not know about Baltimore’s long-standing problem with police brutality, without the subsequent “uprising,” the Sun reported.