Baltimore Police found six children alone inside a vacant building on East Monument Street on Monday morning, prompting officers to rush the kids to a hospital and open a child neglect investigation. Officers responded to the East Baltimore address around 11:30 a.m. and discovered the group of unattended minors inside the empty structure.
According to WBAL News Radio, the six children were taken to Johns Hopkins Pediatric to undergo medical evaluation while police launched their investigation into how they came to be left alone inside the building. Police say they are still working to determine the circumstances that led to the children being unsupervised in the vacant home.
Why the Children Went to Johns Hopkins
The children's transport to Johns Hopkins Pediatric was not incidental. The facility, formally known as Johns Hopkins Children's Center, serves as the region's designated child maltreatment center, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. It offers 24-hour social work support and medical assessments for children identified by police or Child Protective Services as potential neglect victims, and it houses Maryland's only state-designated Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center along with dedicated emergency social work staff.
The hospital sits at 1800 Orleans Street, not far from the East Monument Street address where the children were found, making it the natural destination for police once the minors were located inside the vacant property.
What Maryland Law Says About Unattended Children
Maryland law draws a specific line on this kind of case. Under Maryland Family Law § 5-801, per the Maryland General Assembly, it is a misdemeanor for anyone caring for a child under 8 years old to leave that child locked or confined in any building, dwelling, or vehicle out of sight without a reliable supervisor who is at least 13 years old. The statute explicitly sets 13 as the minimum age for a babysitter overseeing children under 8 in the state.
A conviction under that law carries up to 30 days in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both, according to the Maryland People's Law Library. Prosecutors are not required to prove a child suffered actual physical injury to secure a conviction. Separately, Maryland Family Law § 5-701 defines child neglect more broadly as the failure to give proper care and attention to a child under circumstances indicating the child's health or welfare is harmed or threatened, a standard the Maryland Department of Human Services says investigators use to weigh whether protective custody is warranted.
Maryland also imposes mandatory reporting obligations on professionals who encounter cases like this one. Police officers, healthcare workers, and educators are required to make an immediate oral report of suspected neglect to Child Protective Services or law enforcement, followed by a formal written report within 48 hours, per the state's Department of Human Services. Family Law § 5-705 further obligates ordinary citizens who suspect abuse or neglect to report it as well.
A Vacant Building in a Historic District
The building where the children were found sits within the East Monument Historic District, an 88-block residential and commercial area of East Baltimore made up of dense rows of late 19th- and early 20th-century rowhouses near Johns Hopkins Hospital, according to Baltimore City records. Historically nicknamed “Little Bohemia,” the district is known for narrow alleyways and aging rowhouse infrastructure that has left many structures vacant and unsecured over the decades.
That vacancy problem is citywide. Baltimore recorded 11,813 vacant properties on its Department of Housing and Community Development dashboard as of April 2026, down from roughly 16,000 in 2020. The city directly owns fewer than 1,000 of those properties, with the vast majority in private hands. Maryland has directed $100 million in state grant funding across fiscal years 2025 and 2026 through the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Council toward whole-block redevelopment, part of a 15-year, $3 billion public-private effort to eliminate vacant housing citywide, according to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Hoodline has previously reported on the city's vacancy tax targeting owners and on a fire that gutted vacant rowhomes in West Baltimore, underscoring how empty structures continue to pose hazards across the city.
Monday's case is not the first time Baltimore Police have had to locate the guardians of children found alone in the city's East Side. In February 2023, officers launched a public search to find the parents of a toddler discovered abandoned alone inside a stroller in an East Baltimore alleyway. In cases like that one, police work alongside hospital staff and child welfare agencies to verify a child's safety and custody status, mirroring the process now underway for the six children found on East Monument Street.
No charges have been announced in connection with Monday's discovery, and police have not released the ages of the six children or identified any guardians. The investigation into how the children came to be alone inside the vacant building remains active.
