Mayor Scott ‘furious’ over Safe Streets worker’s arrest in North Baltimore shooting

A member of Baltimore’s flagship antiviolence program has been arrested in connection with a nonfatal shooting Sunday in North Baltimore, officials said.

Antoine Burton, a 51-year-old who worked as a violence interrupter for Safe Streets’ Belvedere site, has been charged with attempted murder and handgun violations, according to a Baltimore Police news release.

Burton’s case does not yet appear in online court records. Charging documents were not available. It’s unclear if Burton is being represented by an attorney.

Mayor Brandon Scott denounced Burton’s alleged conduct Monday, saying in a statement he was “furious.”

“This individual’s actions are a disgrace,” Scott said. “He has failed to live up to our standards for frontline community violence intervention staff and violated the trust that is at the very core of what makes violence intervention work overwhelmingly successful. Nobody should ever resort to violence to resolve conflict, especially someone tasked with promoting peace.”

Scott added that he hoped for “swift, certain, and legitimate consequences.”

The mayor said the shooting was an “isolated incident, and should not be used to undermine the proven work that Safe Streets does each and every day.”

“As this individual answers for his personal actions,” Scott continued, “we will continue to hold our Safe Streets teams to the highest standards for conduct, and they will continue their lifesaving work to prevent violence and uplift our communities.”

A recently released paper by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Gun Violence Solutions found Safe Streets was associated with a 42% drop in homicides involving people ages 15 to 24 and a 21% reduction in nonfatal shootings among the same age group at the neighborhood level.

Safe Streets employs credible messengers, including people with criminal records, to intervene in disputes before they erupt into violence.

It’s unclear if Burton has a criminal record.

The Belvedere Safe Streets site is one of six operated by LifeBridge Health’s Center for Hope.

Spokesperson Sharon Boston said in a statement that LifeBridge was “deeply disappointed and concerned by the serious allegations involving a member of our Safe Streets team, which are completely inconsistent with our mission, our values and the standards we expect from our community violence intervention workers.”

Boston added that the organization remained “firmly committed” to the antiviolence mission.

Jack French, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office for Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, which oversees Safe Streets, said Burton has been employed by the antiviolence program since March 31, 2025.

Burton is on leave without pay pending investigation, per LifeBridge policy, French said.

On Sunday, officers from the Police Department’s Northern District were patrolling around 7:30 p.m. when they heard gunfire in the 4400 block of Park Heights Avenue, in the Central Park Heights neighborhood, according to a news release.

Police said officers searched the area and found a 40-year-old man suffering from what they believed to be a gunshot wound. The man was taken to a hospital for medical care. Police did not describe the man’s condition.

Shortly after the shooting, officers assigned to the Northern District Action Team, an operations squad that patrols neighborhoods in search of crime, apprehended Burton in the 2400 block of Loyola Northway, in the Greenspring community and just east of the neighborhood where the shooting occurred.

Officers then took him downtown to the Central Booking & Intake Center.

Scott and Boston said in their respective statements they were thinking about the 40-year-old who had been shot and his family.

This story may be updated.