A Baltimore official made remarks about killing and choking city employees over a city messaging system, fostering a hostile work environment and violating city policy, Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming found.

Cumming’s report, released Wednesday, details numerous instances in which the unnamed employee used their city computer to send messages on the Microsoft Teams platform threatening violence against other employees or city agencies.

The employee had managerial responsibilities and was responsible for working with other city departments, according to Cumming’s report. The messages were sent to subordinates and employees in other agencies. The report does not say if any of the mentioned employees were sent messages directly.

Messages highlighted by the inspector general include:

• Two occasions in 2024 and 2025 when the employee said they would “choke the s‑‑‑ out of” someone; it’s unclear if the messages referred to the same employee.
• An instance in 2025 when the employee wrote that a person was “going to make me crack her skull.”
• A 2025 message where the employee wrote, “I’m about to f‑‑‑ing kill [name redacted].” The employee added, “I am going to f‑‑‑in kill him.”
• Between 2024 and 2025, the employee wrote, “this brawd about to make me throw hands.”
• A message to nine subordinates suggesting an unnamed member of the Baltimore City Council was looking at another subordinate “with lust in his eyes.”

Some messages sent by the employee took aim at specific city agencies.

About the city’s auditing team, the employee wrote, “trash ass auditors.” In reference to the city’s Health Department, the employee said, “I want to shake the s‑‑‑ out of BCHD.” Of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, which manages a city crime-fighting effort, the employee wrote, “every component of their agency is a clusterf‑‑‑.”

The messages are a violation of the city’s technology use policy, Cumming said, which requires city employees to use equipment and platforms in a “responsible, professional, ethical and law-abiding manner.”

In a two-sentence reply, Mayor Brandon Scott said that “appropriate response to this personnel matter will be undertaken.”

In 2025, Cumming found the employee suggested a subordinate “leverage” their “relationship” with other city staff as they applied for city permits for their home. “Get your damn house fixed,” the employee wrote. “Please don’t believe all 13K city employees follow process and don’t try to leverage where they can.”

In her report, Cumming wrote that she was able to investigate the messages, which were found last spring in the course of a separate investigation, because of her access to city documents.

Earlier this year, the Scott administration discovered that Cumming’s staff had “unfettered” access to city legal documents, which they said was a violation of attorney-client and work product privilege. The administration cut such access.

Weeks later, Cumming’s access to a broader swath of city materials was terminated based on legal advice from an attorney in the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. The attorney said Cumming was subject to restrictions built into Maryland’s Public Information Act.

Last month, Cumming sued the city seeking to enforce subpoenas she submitted to the administration.