Friday, June 20, 2008

June 20

32-year-old Donta Gregory was shot and killed on a Remington street corner last night. According to yesterday's comments, Gregory "had an extensive rap sheet and was a defendant in six paternity cases." I don't know whether or not that's true, but if it's on the World Wide Internets, it's good enough for me! (Thanks, Mr. Meph.)

The same link above lists two other shootings last night, both non-fatal (so far). Also, the manager of an apartment complex in Woodlawn was shot yesterday morning and is in critical condition.

A BPD officer was taken to Shock Trauma early this morning after being involved in "some sort of altercation." Now, would somebody please nominate WMAR for a Murrow award, because that's some damned fine investigative reporting.

Two motorcyclists died at the Holabird exit off of I-95 in Dundalk in Sunday. Never mind that they were going way too fast, not pulling over for police, and one of them was riding a stolen bike; the family says it's the cops' fault that they died. (Thanks, ppatin.)

More on the sword attack in Middle River.

The under-18 crowd is going to have a rude awakening when they're hanging out at 2:00am.

13 comments:

burgersub said...

i think the point of the curfew is not to give them a rude awakening, because they'll already be awake when they shouldn't be, but rather a rude asleepening, or at least a rude insidening.

Anonymous said...

Oh man. I just laughed until tears came burgersub. Studying for Step 1 was getting me down - I needed that, thanks!

dmitryp said...

i just got to baltimore and staying in glenn burnie. i want to take light rail into the city and back on the weekend if i can figure out how to get there. is it going to be safe? it is number #14 stop on map below.

http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/lightrail/schedule/weblayout%20lr200.pdf

Unknown said...

"Donta" seems to be quite an infernal name here in baltimore. Check the list of perps and victims....

Unknown said...

I thought about coming up with new Dixon and Jessamy related lyrics to "Dark Side of the Moon", but I'm just too goddamn tired.

DurhamSt said...

rununix,
Baltimore is a city, and despite all our woes, a wonderful city. Most of us love it despite all our bitching. The light rail is a fine way of traveling, we just had friends come for our wedding from the middle of nowhere South Dakota and they took the light rail in from the airport without any problem. Even better they were amazed with Baltimore and even decided to stay a few extra days when they realized that is is not all the "wire" and "homicide". Granted they, as most of us do, stuck to Baltimore A. If you follow the simple rules of city life: understand your surroundings, act like you know where your going, and don't behave like a drunken frat boy, then you will be fine. Despite its flaws Baltimore is a great place to live and play.

John Galt said...

That said, a man was just shot at Battery & Montgomery in Federal Hill. He's dead now. Homicide is on the scene.

taotechuck said...

Apparently, the Federal Hill shooting happened inside a car, the car pulled over, they dumped the body, and they drove away. Sounds like a contained and purposeful incident rather than a random act of violence.

unix, Harold put it very well. How safe the city is is largely up to you. Yes, there are random acts of violence, but that is true in any city. If you don't behave like an ass, odds are you'll be fine.

Maurice Bradbury said...

since no one's required to walk around with ID in this country, why couldn't an 8-year-old just say he's 18?

THE LINK said...

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? WHo writes these blogs? Donta Gregory was not some street thug that you have any right to write nasty things about! Donta was his mothers child, a father or 4 (2 of which are twins), a boyfriend and a loyal caring soft spoken FRIEND. You wrote that if it's on the web it's good enough (info) for you? Why dont you learn how to do your research. Many of us, tons of us will miss him very much.

THE LINK said...

In addition does having an alleged " extensive rap sheet" or having been " a defendent in six (alleged) paternity cases" make it okay that someone walked up to him and shot him to death...multiple times? I think not! ANd who is Mr.Meph? Your go to guy for bad information?

taotechuck said...

Link, a bit of history about this blog. When we started writing over three years ago (me on a separate blog, MJB here), murders in this city got two kinds of coverage from the media: Jack and Shit.

Coverage of murder victims has improved dramatically since 2005. City Paper's "Murder Ink" column (started in 2004) has grown, the Sun is much more consistent (but not perfect) in naming victims and writing about them, the Examiner's daily coverage is lacking but they offer a fairly substantial month-in-review.

Even so, in my opinion it's not enough.

So when I write a comment like "If it's on the World Wide Internets, it must be true," that is my jaded and sarcastic way of stating that this city is (in ways) totally fucked, and the fact that we as a society don't care about crime victims is even more fucked. How ridiculous is it that I have to rely on the comments of my own blog for news? It's bullshit, and it pisses me off.

The fact that Donta was a father and a friend is the kind of information that should be made public. Rather than point fingers at us for not doing research, why don't you do what Liz did and make sure the world knows what kind of person Donta was? Start a blog and talk about him. Memorialize him. If you don't know how to start a blog, contact me through email and I'll help you set up a blog.

Anonymous said...

The Link is right to alot of us he made a huge difference in our lives and without him I wouldn't be half the person I am today him and his family had a big impact on me in the short time me and him were together him and his family changed my life my the I ever had a chance to let him know. He was always going to visit his Grandmother(Mama to those fortunate enough to have her in their lives)and he always took care of his kids,looked out for his younger brothers whenever he possibly could. So i suggest if you didn't know him personally leave your comments to those of us who did!