A student at the REACH! Partnership School in East Baltimore was hospitalized after being grazed by a bullet near the campus Wednesday afternoon, according to Baltimore Police.
Officers were dispatched at 3:51 p.m. after a report of discharging on the 2500 block of Harford Road, near the city high school that borders Clifton Park, police said in a news release. There, they found a 16-year-old who was suffering from a non-life-threatening graze wound to his body.
The teen is a student at REACH!, a public school operated by the nonprofit Civic Works, and ran into the building to get help after being shot off campus, according to city schools spokespeople. The school was secured, and the boy was taken to a hospital.
Baltimore Police Northeast District shooting detectives responded to the scene and are investigating the shooting.
Those with information are asked to contact them at 410-396-2444, or anonymously contact Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
On Wednesday night, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement regarding “recent youth violence” that he was “deeply disturbed about the increasing trend of young people resolving their conflicts with guns.” The statement did not specifically mention the student being injured earlier in the day.
Five youths under age 18 have been shot to death in Baltimore since the start of 2023, and more have been injured in city shootings. Two of the homicides occurred near school grounds — Deanta Dorsey, 16, was killed and four other students were injured close to Edmondson-Westside High School in January, and Izaiah Carter, a 16-year-old Patterson High School student, was killed at a park near the Southeast Baltimore school last week.
Scott cited police seizures of nearly 400 guns, a 25% reduction in homicides and a 27% reduction in nonfatal shootings as signs of “significant progress in the fight against violence.” He also touted a school-based violence intervention pilot program in three high schools while acknowledging there is “much more work to be done” to reduce youth violence.
“I urge schools, coaches, churches, and community-based organizations to step up and mentor our youth, showing them that they have a bright future right here in Baltimore,” Scott said. “Baltimore, we have to work do.”