Baltimore police said one man was killed and another wounded in a shooting Monday evening at a barbershop in Baltimore’s Highlandtown neighborhood.
Police spokesman TJ Smith said two other victims were shot around the same time elsewhere in the city. One walked into an area hospital, and the other victim was shot in the central district. Smith said police “have reason to believe” the incidents are connected.
“Everything happened at one time,” Smith said.
The police department on Tuesday identified the man who was killed 47-year-old Andreas Tamaris of Baltimore County.
Smith said the shooting was likely targeted; two suspects walked into the barbershop around 5 p.m. and began firing. One of those wounded walked into a hospital, the other was taken by ambulance and pronounced dead.
He said two suspects were at large; one left the scene on foot and the other drove off after the shooting. Smith said he was hopeful people could help identify a suspect given that the shooting happened in daylight hours.
As evening approached, a thin splash of blood stained the glass door of His & Her Barbershop in the 3200 block of Eastern Avenue. Smith, acting police commissioner Darryl De Sousa and homicide detectives were on the scene.
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Jermaine Winter said he had parked his car up the street and was on his way into the barbershop, where he goes for biweekly haircuts, when he heard the sound of gunshots.
“I was like ‘Whoa,’ ” he said. Soon, police showed up and a person was carried onto an ambulance, he said. “It makes me nervous to come back around here,” he said.
Jay Smith, 83, said he was born in Baltimore and remembers the days when he was growing up and homicides were so rare in the city that newsboys shouted it from the streets when it happened, and “for weeks [people] couldn’t believe that someone was murdered.”
“Now it happens every day,” he said.
Jay Smith said he and his neighbors are concerned by what they see as a dramatic increase in robberies in the neighborhood. He said members of the merchants association have considered hiring a private security firm to protect shops.
The police spokesman, TJ Smith, said there was no indication the shootings were related to recent armed robberies that have taken place in the vicinity.
“Based on the caliber of weapon at that scene and the caliber of weapon at this scene, we know that those aren’t related,” he said.