Catina Smith froze when she got a frantic call Sunday night from her 16-year-old daughter. The teenager was crying, telling Smith, “Someone’s shooting.”
A spray of bullets had just cut through the air during a fight, Smith’s daughter said, and she was hiding in bushes near the Inner Harbor skate park.
“I was just shaking,” said Smith, a local chef who competed on the most recent season of “Hell’s Kitchen.” “If something would have happened to my baby girl I don’t know what I would have done.”
Baltimore Police are investigating the shooting near the Maryland Science Center along the Inner Harbor that sent people fleeing during a busy weekend evening. Law enforcement officials believe a dispute between two groups escalated when one person pulled a weapon and opened fire, department spokesperson Donny Moses said. No one was injured.
Officers in the 600 block of Light Street heard gunshots around 6:59 p.m. When police arrived, people were fleeing too quickly to count, Moses said.
Smith’s daughter told her in a later phone conversation that she saw a young person standing at the skate park with what she thought was an assault-style rifle, “standing like he’s some sort of soldier.”
Police could not confirm the witness account about the type of weapon, saying the investigation remains open.
Smith said her daughter heard police coming and started to feel some relief. She and her friends were picked up by another parent who was closer, Smith said.
“When she got home, we were hugging for like five minutes, and she said, ‘I’m not going down there anymore,’” she said.
Smith said she sent a message to Mayor Brandon Scott, whom she knows through Scott’s wife, saying there needs to be a heightened police presence at the Inner Harbor — especially as the weather gets warmer. Scott assured her that the police were there, and unfortunately, it happened anyway, she said.
“I’m just glad I felt at ease about telling my mayor my concern,” she said.
In a statement Monday, the mayor’s office said it is again activating youth engagement teams that will be on the ground in areas where young people are likely to congregate on weekends and holiday evenings. The teams will be active starting Friday through September, and focus on de-escalating conflicts and serving as a resource to connect youths with services if needed, according to the mayor’s office.
The Scott administration will continue to work with the Baltimore Police Department to hold anyone who jeopardizes the safety of fellow residents accountable, regardless of age, according to the statement.
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