Before the shooting by an off-duty police officer of an unarmed man behind a Mount Vernon nightclub, there was the fatal shooting of the co-owner of City Cafe. And years before that, there were the stabbings of two workers at Gampy's.
Four killings in one of the city's trendiest neighborhoods, spread out over nearly 30 years, but all within a city block and sharing a service drive known as Morton Street.
It's wide enough in most places for two cars to fit side by side, and runs between North Charles and Cathedral streets, allowing for parking and backdoor access to the area's clubs and restaurants.
It is where Officer Gajihi A. Tshamba is accused of shooting Tyrone Brown after a confrontation that started near the Hippo's back door, crossed Morton Street and ended in a parking lot behind Eddie's supermarket with Brown struck by a dozen bullets fired at close range.
The June 5 shooting sparked days of headlines followed by a manhunt, and it ended with the officer in jail charged with first-degree murder.
Back in 2001, another crime captured the city's attention. On a February morning, 43-year-old John P. Darda walked out of the City Cafe carrying a bag filled with $3,000. He turned up Morton Street on his way to the bank and was ambushed and shot in the head after trying to fight off the attacker with an umbrella.
Police said Darda had been betrayed by a co-worker who had accompanied him on his walk for protection but had alerted two friends that "it was time to do the robbery." They arrested three suspects and convicted two of first-degree murder.
Darda ran the restaurant with his half-brother, Gino Cardinale, who thought about selling after the killing but said the support he received from Mount Vernon residents — coffee regulars found time to attend the funeral — persuaded him to stay.
Cardinale said he thinks back to his brother's shooting and considers the latest violence and wonders whether the neighborhood can support such a mix of venues. A typical appetizer at City Cafe is fried calamari and banana peppers with tomato sauce and basil aioli. But the neighborhood sidewalks are also lined with bars and late-night dance clubs that cater to a wide variety of clients and support mainstream and alternative lifestyles.
Debate raged last summer after shootings outside a hip-hop club in the nearby Belvedere Hotel. Residents complained that clubs are out of place in a cultural district that boasts an opera house and art museums. Club owners countered that they're unfairly targeted because of their young customers.
"I don't believe Mount Vernon is supposed to be Baltimore's late-night venue," Cardinale said. Referring to the Brown shooting, he said, "It's the Belvedere all over again."
Police and residents do attribute violence — some recent stabbings and muggings, for example — to the clubbing atmosphere that keeps the streets thumping with music and so crowded that bar owners have to use bullhorns to urge crowds to disperse after last call.
But the latest shooting was between a former Marine and a police officer. The 2001 shooting of Darda was orchestrated by one of his own employees on a weekday morning and was carried out by his friends.
Still, Cardinale said, the violence calls attention to problems that stem from what he says is the larger issue of nightclub patrons sharing sidewalk space with theater-goers and diners.
It's a feeling that is bound to once again spark debate over what types of entertainment should and shouldn't be allowed in certain communities.
Back in 1981, at the southern end of the block housing the Hippo, two brothers burst into the Great American Melting Pot, popularly known as Gampy's. They tied at least one employee to a chair, stabbed one 40 times, the other 32 times, and slit their throats before escaping on a city bus with $2,600.
The crfime at what is now Marie Louise Bistro, sandwiched between North Charles and Morton streets, was one of the most sensational killings in the city that year.
Now, for the second consecutive year, violence has attracted attention and debate to Mount Vernon.
But Gino Cardinale perseveres. In September, he celebrates 16 years at the same spot, and he said he has no plans to leave.
"I don't think the street is cursed," Cardinale said. "It unfortunately has borne witness to a lot of things that are wrong in modern society. … These kinds of incidents overshadow all of the progress and all of the good things that are happening.
"Baltimore has a real jewel in this neighborhood. We need to preserve it, not destroy it."