911 calls for Brooklyn Homes shooting reveal extended terror

For 90 seconds that must have felt like an eternity, a young woman implored a 911 dispatcher to rush an ambulance to Brooklyn Homes.

“Somebody was shooting, there was like 60 shots let off,” she pleaded as the dispatcher implored her to give a specific street address. “I need an ambulance right now. Can you please hurry up?”

That’s when another volley of shots — it seems like dozens more — can be heard.

“They shooting again!” she yells.

“OK get down, ma’am! Get down!” the dispatcher responds.

As Baltimore Police continue to investigate the July 2 shooting in which two people were killed and 28 others injured, as well as review their own actions that night, the city released a handful of 911 calls Friday in response to a public records request from The Baltimore Banner.

Little new information is revealed about what led to the Brooklyn Day shooting or how it unfolded. City officials redacted long portions of the conversations, citing medical or psychological information.

But each of the calls highlight the sheer, prolonged terror of the shooting and its aftermath. Gunshots can be heard on at least three of them. The Banner previously reported that investigators collected bullet casings from the scene that were believed to have been expelled by more than a dozen guns.

Callers reported they were trying to help injured people — both those they knew and some who were strangers.

“Somebody is shot, I’m right next to him,” a young woman screamed.

“How old is the patient?” the dispatcher asked.

“How old are you? How old are you?” she is heard asking the injured person. She later procured a sweatshirt from someone else to help treat the victim.

Some calls stretch five to 10 minutes long, with the callers reporting there was no sign of police or ambulances.

“They need to hurry the fuck up. 911 is a fucking joke in this town, yo,” one woman can be heard saying almost seven minutes into one of the calls.

Another lasts almost six minutes, consisting almost entirely of a woman screaming over and over, “Where is my sister?”

A dispatcher asks, “Ma’am, are the police and medics on the scene?”

“No, nobody is on the fucking scene,” she responds. “Not the police, not the paramedics, nothing.”

In a nearly four-hour hearing at City Hall, city agencies were criticized for not having a presence at the massive party, which is held annually. Police said they did not learn of the date it would be held this year until it was too late, and did not adjust resources after learning it was taking place or receiving 911 calls earlier in the night. An “after action” review has been promised for 30 to 45 days out from the shooting.

At least one arrest has been made: a teenager charged with gun possession after being filmed with a weapon earlier in the evening. There have been few updates since, but a follow-up City Council hearing is scheduled for Sept. 13.

One of the calls fades out with a bystander imploring a victim who is unknown to her to hold on.

“Come on you got it. You got it. You got it,” a woman says.

justin.fenton@thebaltimorebanner.com

Justin Fenton

justin.fenton@thebaltimorebanner.com

Justin Fenton is an investigative reporter for the Baltimore Banner. He previously spent 17 years at the Baltimore Sun, covering the criminal justice system. His book, "We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption," was released by Random House in 2021 and became an HBO miniseries.

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