A 47-year-old man shot Tuesday in East Baltimore was the city's 199th murder victim this year.
Baltimore police say Sasha Bullock died at a hospital after officers found him in the 2800 block of Ashland Ave. in the Madison-Eastend neighborhood with multiple gunshot wounds at about 5:44 p.m.
As rain fell Tuesday evening, homicide detectives gathered evidence from the crime scene and were going in and out of a minivan and a rowhouse on the block. No further details were provided.
Three years ago, the number of annual homicides in Baltimore fell below 200, a benchmark that was seen as a tangible sign of progress in the city's crime fight and revitalization efforts.
What many hoped was a milestone marking a continuing downward trend became instead a statistical anomaly as the city's homicide count increased the next two years.
The city's homicide count is down 8 percent compared with last year and dramatically lower than the 1990s — an entire decade where 300 people were killed every year.
Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she does not view progress by the number of homicides in Baltimore because each one represents the life of a city resident.
"I don't think there's an acceptable number of deaths in our city," she said.
She believed the city is reducing violent crime with new projects such as the violence intervention program Operation Ceasefire, which has been working with violent offenders in West Baltimore, which has seen a 53 percent drop in homicides compared with 2013.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said Wednesday he believes officers have done a "steady job" curbing violent crime since January. That month, the city saw a significant spike of 27 homicides that was followed by an unusually low 17 killings over the next two months.
"I'm not satisfied but it's a step in the right direction," he said.
Bullock had been the city's 200th murder victim this year but on Wednesday police said detectives and prosecutors ruled a killing last month as justifiable — which police do not count as a homicide.
Also Tuesday, a man was shot in the back in the 600 block of S. Payson St. of the Carrollton Ridge neighborhood. Detectives from the Southern District are investigating.
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