Protecting Our Children: Searching for solutions to Baltimore's rising juvenile shootings and homicides
The toll on Baltimore is staggering.
At least juveniles 35 juveniles have been shot and ten have been killed in a year that has seen an alarming rise in youth violence.
D'Asia Garrison, 17, was the first homicide victim of 2023.
Just days later, 16-year-old Deonta Dorsey died. He was one of five students shot near Edmondson-Westside High School.
In March, 16-year-old Patterson High School student Izaiah Carter, who was shot in the head and killed nearby at Joseph E. Lee Park before school was dismissed.
Last month, Jaylen Richards, 12, was killed by someone with an assault-style rifle.
While overall shootings and homicides have dropped, those involving juveniles are up more than 50 percent. https://roomforrentsg.site/amp/baltimore/news/edmonson-westside-high-school-student-killed-in-baltimore-shooting/
At a city council public safety hearing earlier this month, police said homicides involving juveniles were up 67 percent and shootings were up by 55 percent.
Several of the juvenile victims have been shot near schools.
"Every time there is one of these shootings, there is sort of a ripple effect on the school community that's very tough to overcome.," said The Baltimore Banner's Education Reporter Liz Bowie.
She has been covering news in the city for more than 30 years and interviewed students after the January shooting near Edmondson-Westside.
"They said when that shooting happened across the street, it was stunning to them. It was really horrific and that they couldn't imagine their friends across the street who were lying there bleeding," Bowie said. "Their fear is really once they leave. Their fear is what happens to them once they're standing at the bus stop, what happens to them while they're walking the five blocks to school."
Dawod Thomas runs My Father's Plan based out of Pen Lucy.
WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren asked him what has changed in since violence spiked.
"Access to guns. There's more access to guns than ever before," Thomas said.
He said he wants to provide young people with an alternative.
"Unfortunately with our young people, some of the decisions they're making are life and death decisions. It's the decision between going home or going to jail for 30 years," he said. "You have to look at parenting. A lot of parents are not aware of the things their kids are into when they're outside."
His non-profit provides mentoring, job training and mental health support to youth as young as eight and into their 20s. We first profiled My Father's Plan last October after a 16-year-old boy was killed nearby.
He said it comes down to providing the basics and teaching kids that the violence they see all too often is not normal.
"Does this kid eat every day? This kid wants to make money. Can we help them make money legally? What is this kid's trauma? Let's address the trauma. Those three things: economic, nutrition, mental health. You've got to address those three things—and at the same time," Thomas said.
His organization currently works with 30 young people citywide.
"I was fortunate. I was blessed. I lived through my choices and decisions. And I made bad ones. Trust me. It almost cost me my life, and it almost cost me my freedom," he said.
Thomas, now 50, was shot at age 19.
"When I got shot, it wasn't because I was an innocent bystander. I got shot because I was outside doing stuff, and that's what happens. when you're outside doing stuff: Eventually, that stuff is done to you, and a lot of parents don't know that," he told WJZ. "I was a part of the problem. Now I want to be a part of the solution. Not just for my children, but for all of our children."
He's issuing a challenge to everyone: Get involved.
"I would rather die for something I believe in than stand on the side and be safe. I don't want to be safe. I want to jump in. For the Black men who are good fathers, who are taking care of their family, I challenge those men to do more because we have to, and if we don't, then we can't really complain about what's going on. The politicians can't do it all, right? The power is with the people."
All as a city dealing with the heartbreaking loss of young lives looks to save the next generation.
