Two men were killed in shootings hours apart in West Baltimore, police said Saturday.
About 9:10 p.m. Friday, police were called to the 700 block of N. Monroe St. in the Midtown-Edmondson neighborhood. At the scene, officers discovered a male suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his body. He was taken to an area hospital, where he died.
He was identified as Kareem Samuel, 27, of the 600 block of Montpelier St.
Attorney Stephen Beatty, who had previously represented Samuel, said he wanted to better his life, and recently sought his help to get a job working in an oil field in North Dakota to get away from Baltimore.
Beatty said he offers to help his clients improve their lives after cases are over. "Almost nobody takes me up on it. Kareem did. He was really interested in getting out there," he said, away from "the influences in the city. He wanted something different."
Beatty said Samuel had never been out west, much less outside of Baltimore. He had represented Samuel in recent cases, including a shooting in which Beatty said Samuel was wrongfully accused and another case in which he had a knife in jail to protect himself.
He said Samuel is the third client he's lost to gunfire in the past month.
"There's a tendency, especially in Baltimore, where people become a chalk outline and a statistic," he said. Samuel was smart, thoughtful, and charming person, he said.
"I do think that had he not grown up in a place where he had to look over his shoulder that he could have looked forward much earlier in life," he said.
Several hours after Samuel was shot, another man was killed in West Baltimore. Police were called at 1:15 a.m. Saturday to the 200 block of N. Fremont Ave. in Poppleton, where they found a man who had been shot in his upper body. He was taken to an area hospital where he died from his injuries. Police have not yet released his name.
Homicide detectives are investigating and ask anyone with information to call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7Lockup.
In a third incident, officers went to the 200 block of S. Tremont Road in southwest Baltimore to investigate a shooting at 6:45 a.m. Saturday, police said. They found a man suffering a gunshot wound in his arm and back. He was taken to the hospital for treatment, police said.
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