A gunman in Baltimore Saturday night killed one man and wounded two other adults in a “mass casualty incident,” the city’s top police leader said.
One person was taken into custody for questioning, and police are still trying to determine if the person has been designated as a suspect or victim, officials said at a news conference Saturday night.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison described a chaotic scene in the city’s Upton community, where ShotSpotter sensors alerted police to gunshots at 6:39 p.m.
He said it appeared the gunman, or possibly more than one armed suspect, opened fire, striking a 43-year-old man standing outside, who was pronounced dead at the hospital, and another man, 65, was shot in the arm and wounded. A motorist in a vehicle driving nearby, Harrison said.
“Here we are again with another mass casualty incident,” he said.
The vehicle carrying the 2- and 3-year-olds hit a pole and stopped, the commissioner said. The 23-year-old woman behind the wheel was stabilized at a hospital after authorities initially said she was in critical condition, according to a late-night statement from Baltimore police.
According to the release, the child sustained head injuries and injuries in the vehicle accident. The police said that the 3-year-old boy who was injured in the collision is being treated at the hospital. They said that the condition of the 2-year-old boy who was injured in the accident is critical.
Police initially assumed the 2-year-old boy was shot in the face, but said the boy was the only one injured in the overnight vehicle collision.
In their overnight statement, Baltimore police said it appeared the vehicle had crashed “when the driver was shot.”
“What we believe happened was that at some point, a gunman or multiple gunmen opened fire,” Harrison said earlier in the evening. “We don’t know if the target was the people in the target vehicle or the people sitting on the sidewalk.”
The reason for the shooting has not yet been revealed. “We see this constantly, and we know it’s nothing more,” said Mayor Brandon Scott.
Police appealed to potential friends, family and witnesses to come forward with facts about the attack.
“It’s time for us to stop doing things like that,” Scott said at a news conference. “We can be better. It’s on us. It’s not on anybody else. It’s not on the police to make us better for ourselves. We can do that.”