Armed carjackings by juveniles up in Baltimore, new data shows
BALTIMORE — As a Baltimore native, Becky Hamm has lived in the Wyman Park neighborhood for over five decades and has heard of only two instances of a carjacking or robbery on her block. One of those occurred Wednesday, when police say a group of people attacked two bystanders just down the street.
"It's crazy that it happened here because usually it never happens on this street," Hamm said. "The only thing I heard was someone screaming and the car taking off."
Police allege that when the group of people reached the 3600 block of Beech Avenue at the scene around 11:37 a.m. they had already stolen a vehicle, before assaulting two people and fleeing. They then went on to two other locations where they either assaulted or attempted to assault someone, according to a police news release.
The incident is just one example of a violent carjacking in a city that sees dozens of them, police say.
In April, Baltimore prosecutors accused 20 underage people of nearly 53 incidents of armed carjackings and robberies throughout the city in October and November 2023.
On Friday, new data obtained by The Baltimore Sun via a public records request showed that as of Sept. 4, juvenile armed carjackings have already surpassed the previous two years in number of instances. Unarmed carjackings, however, have decreased.
As of Sept. 4, there were 24 armed carjackings and four unarmed carjackings, according to data provided by the Baltimore Police Department. Comparatively, there were only 21 of these armed carjackings and 12 unarmed carjackings for the entirety of 2023.
University of Baltimore Criminal Justice Professor Jeffrey Ian Ross said people are more compliant when a firearm is in front of them, and people might be at the point where unarmed carjackers will not scare them as easily as before.
"I think people are more exhausted with the carjacking, and thus, if someone wants your car and they aren't going to present a weapon, they are going to say, 'Screw it' [and drive off]," Ross said. "Maybe citizens are tired of being victimized."
Similarly, some residents in the Wyman Park neighborhood in North Baltimore said they hope people are not normalizing such crimes. John Gilvar, a resident of the neighborhood, said people are not at ease with this "random" incident.
"I don't think anyone in our neighborhood thinks that this is just Baltimore," Gilvar said. "Sometimes I feel like kids don't get the attention, love and support that they need, and they get in trouble."
The Sun reported in April that Baltimore State's Attorney Ivan Bates has said he will make it a priority to hold parents criminally and financially accountable in cases where they know of their child's crimes.
At that same news conference, Bates said he wanted to revise the Baltimore Police Department's and the state's catch-and-release policy, under which juveniles are released to their parents after an arrest.
During 2023, 16 juveniles were held while five were released to their parent or guardian for allegedly being involved in an armed carjacking. An additional nine were held, while two were released to their parent or guardian, and one was released without charges for unarmed carjacking, according to the data provided by BPD.
All of them were under the age of 18. A spokesperson for the BPD did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
This year, 20 juveniles were held while six were released to their parent or guardian for armed carjackings. There were two juveniles who were detained and released for allegedly being involved in unarmed carjackings, according to the data provided by BPD, the same number of under-18 children questioned as the prior year.
Bates asked Gov. Wes Moore to revise the catch-and-release policy, so it requires officers to speak to parents of the detained juveniles and analyze what can be done to prevent more delinquency.
For Cole Unger, a resident in the Wyman Park neighborhood, measures like the one Bates suggests involving catch-and-release still avoid the central question of how younger people are getting involved in criminal activity like carjacking in the first place — and how it affects the victims of such crimes before and after such trauma.
"It's very upsetting for the people affected," Unger told The Sun. "It's difficult when the people who are doing it seem to be doing it for no reason.
"There's generally a lack of consideration for anyone they are doing that to, which is unfortunate."
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