The Baltimore Police Department has made one arrest in relation to the shooting: a 17 year-old who is not charged with firing a gun is being charged as an adult. Police believe multiple shooters are responsible for the carnage.
Tuesday will be Day 45 — the last day of the city and communitywide stabilization plan for Brooklyn Homes after a July 2nd shooting killed two people and wounded 28 others.
What’s next for residents who live in a community that they have said feels forgotten?
The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, MONSE, is the mayor’s non-policing public safety agency. It’s spent at least one day a week in Brooklyn Homes talking to residents about various ways they can connect them to city services. That work will continue after the 45-day response through the help of community partnerships, said Stefanie Mavronis, the interim Director for MONSE. The agency will work as a middleman between churches, nonprofits, and other local organizations to connect residents with city services.
“We want to make sure that we’re able to lift up and support, as a city government partner, community driven events,” said Mavronis. “And make sure the resources don’t stop just because day 45 has come. We’ll continue to play that role in partnership and as a connector.”
Mavronis said that they have expanded their partnership with local community organizations since the stabilization plan began on July 2nd, the day of the Brooklyn Day mass shooting. She did not specify which local organizations with which they would be partnering. MONSE already assists Catholic Charities in administering the Safe Streets violence interruption program which has an office in the Brooklyn neighborhood.
MONSE still has its work cut out for them when it comes to building community trust and a feeling of safety going beyond the 45 days.
A survey released in late July, conducted by the Greater Baybrook Alliance’s Violence Reduction Leadership Team, found that 98% of Brooklyn Homes residents still felt unsafe after the shooting. 97 residents partook in the survey from July 14-27, 54 were from Brooklyn Homes and the others were from surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods, according to The Baltimore Sun who reported on the survey first.
