Two weeks after a 12-year-old boy was shot while watching an NBA playoff game on the porch of his Northeast Baltimore home near Clifton Park, police are pleading for help in finding the killer, who they think might live near the victim.
Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Wednesday that Baltimore police are working "round the clock" to identify suspects in the shooting of Sean Johnson on May 24, an incident that "galvanized the city." But he said police "are running out of witnesses and evidence to further fuel our efforts."
"We're asking, we're begging, we're pleading for anyone with any information in that case to contact us," Guglielmi added at a news conference at the Southern District station.
Johnson and three others were shot as they sat watching the game on the porch of a home in the 1700 block of Cliftview Ave. Shawnta Little said her son was shot twice in the head and once in the neck and leg. A bullet lodged in his spine. He died two days after the shooting. The three teens were slightly injured.
"We have a direction that we're going in, and that we're looking at; I don't want to say too much to compromise the case," Guglielmi said. "We need some additional evidence to further our progress, additional witness testimony for corroboration."
Police believe the shooter or shooters live in Baltimore, perhaps in the Lake Clifton neighborhood where the incident occurred.
"As the police commissioner said, 'The individuals did not come in from California, they did not drive down from New York to commit this murder,'" Guglielmi said. "These are individuals that are in that neighborhood. We know this. The community knows this, and we really need to do some justice for Sean here to find the individuals responsible for his death."