Baltimore has recorded its deadliest start to a year, with 179 people killed in the first six months of 2022.

A terrible 10-day stretch that saw an average of six people shot per day helped pushed the number of people killed in June to 41 victims, the first time the city has seen that many victims in a month since the summer of 2015. The number of victims in the first six months is more than 1993, which saw 172 people killed, and 2017, which saw 170.

Well before a national spike, Baltimore’s gun violence exploded in May 2015, with 42 killings, followed by a record of 45 homicides that July. The rate of violence has remained high ever since, with the city on track to record well over 300 homicides for the eighth straight year.

The city has recorded 40 or more homicides in a month only four times since 1970: August 1972, May 2015, July 2015, and now June 2022. The hardest-hit police district last month was the Northeastern District, which saw nine killings, while West Baltimore’s Carrollton Ridge neighborhood — which has experienced 52 killings over the past 3 1/2 years — saw six killings in June alone. There were six total homicides in Carrollton Ridge between 2012 and 2014.

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Because the FBI requires police departments to count a death when it is classified as a homicide, not all of this month’s homicides actually occurred in June, as is the case most months. One of the victims was shot in 2012, but died this year from complications of his injuries and was ruled a homicide last month. Two others were shot in 2017 and 2018. A decomposing body was also found behind an East Baltimore home on June 28.

justin.fenton@thebaltimorebanner.com

nick.thieme@thebaltimorebanner.com

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