Seven people, including a 3-year-old boy, were shot Wednesday night on East Fayette Street in Baltimore, police said. The shooting was reported around 9 p.m. in the 1400 block near North Caroline Street, in the Washington Hill and Douglas Homes area. The child underwent surgery, and Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said all seven victims were expected to survive with non-life-threatening injuries, according to CBS Baltimore.
Police said a group of people opened fire and were still determining how many shooters were involved. Investigators were reviewing surveillance footage as they worked to establish what happened and identify those responsible, according to The Baltimore Banner. Police have not publicly identified the other victims or announced a motive.
The shooting occurred amid a broader decline in Baltimore violence, but citywide statistics do not explain this individual attack. Baltimore Police Department data showed that, as of July 1, 2026, homicides were down 23% from the same point in 2025 and non-fatal shootings were down 2.5%, according to the department’s mid-year report.
The longer-term decline is also reflected in The Baltimore Sun’s homicide database, which lists 133 Baltimore homicide victims in 2025, compared with 202 in 2024 and 262 in 2023. Those figures describe the city as a whole and should not be read as evidence about the circumstances or cause of Wednesday’s shooting, according to The Baltimore Sun.
A Separate Shooting in the Same Block
The 1400 block of East Fayette Street has also been the site of earlier gun violence. In a separate incident on February 15, 2023, four male victims, ages 17, 16, 21 and 23, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Baltimore Police Department. The older case does not establish that the incidents were connected, and police have not announced a connection.
Baltimore’s Violence-Reduction Strategy
Baltimore launched its Group Violence Reduction Strategy in January 2022 in partnership with police and prosecutors. The initiative focuses police, prosecutors and service providers on people identified as being at high acute risk of involvement in gun violence, according to the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.
City records show that the strategy is active in five police districts: Western, Southwestern, Eastern, Central and Southern. Its presence in the Eastern District does not show that it prevented or could have prevented this shooting. Separately, The Trace, citing a University of Pennsylvania Crime and Justice Policy Lab study, reported that the strategy was associated with a roughly one-third decline in shootings and homicides in Baltimore’s Western District within 18 months, compared with similar areas that had not yet received it. That evaluation concerns the program’s broader results, not the East Fayette Street case, according to The Trace.
The investigation into Wednesday’s shooting remained active, and the number of shooters, motive and relationships among the victims were not publicly established in the available reports.
