Murders This Week: 5
Murders This Year: 112

Tuesday. June 23

4:52 a.m. Police were called to the 2200 block of Tucker Lane in West Baltimore's Wakefield neighborhood for an assault in progress. They were led to an apartment where Wanda Hackett, a 50-year-old African-American woman, was lying on the bed with a pool of blood around her head. She had been strangled. Hackett was taken to a local hospital where she died at 5:31 a.m.Police found a torn window screen in the bedroom, and witnesses said they saw Richard Howard, a 42-year-old African-American man, crawl out of the window. When questioned, Howard allegedly admitted to having sex with Hackett and claimed that she died during sex. He has been charged with her murder. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 6
Murders this Year: 107

Tuesday, June 16

11:20 p.m. Pierre Alford, a 25-year-old African-American man, was shot in the head inside his home in the 1900 block of Braddish Avenue near Coppin State University. He died at an area hospital just after midnight. This is the fourth murder in Walbrook this year. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 4
Murders this Year: 101

Monday, June 8

5:45 p.m. Three African-American men were shot in the 2500 block of East Federal Street in East Baltimore. A 23-year-old was shot repeatedly in the back, a 25-year-old was shot multiple times in the body, and Karl Snyder, who was 21, was shot several times in the head. They were all taken to an area hospital. The two unnamed men survived, but Snyder was pronounced dead at 5:58 p.m. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 3
Murders this Year: 97

Tuesday, June 2

6:20 a.m. Baltimore City Police were called by Anne Arundel County police to the scene of a homicide. The county police received a call for a shooting at 2:30 a.m. on Old Riverside Road at the city/county line in Brooklyn. Tony Geiger, a 41-year-old Caucasian man, had been shot in the head and was dead. Nearly four hours later, it was determined that his death actually occurred on the city side of the line, making Geiger's death a Baltimore City homicide. Geiger is the 10th white person murdered this year. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 8
Murders this Year: 94

Due to the Memorial Day holiday, this week's column covers homicides from May 23 to May 31.

This year's homicide toll continues to climb with 13 more people killed this year than at the same time last year. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 2
Murders this Year: 83

Due to the Memorial Day holiday, this week's Murder Ink only covers homicides from May 18-22.

Two deaths stemming from shootings that happened years ago were added to the homicide total this week. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 1
Murders This Year: 81

From May 10 to May 16, Baltimore City went seven consecutive days without a homicide. Despite the reprieve, there have been five more homicides this year than at this time last year.

Sunday, May 17 [MORE]

Murders this Week: 4
Murders this Year: 80

Tuesday, May 5

12:23 a.m. Police found Anthony Eggers, a 48-year-old Caucasian man, lying in his own backyard in the 600 block of Parkwyrth Avenue in Waverly. He had been shot repeatedly and died before he could be taken to the hospital. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 4
Murders This Year: 76

The murder of a 53-year-old Caucasian man was ruled a homicide this week. The man was involved in a fight on April 25. He was discovered at 7:45 p.m. unresponsive on a couch inside a home in the 2800 block of Erdman Avenue in Belair -Edison. The fight had caused bleeding on his brain, which killed him. His death was ruled a homicide on April 27. His name is not being released because police have not yet notified his family of his death.

Monday, April 27 [MORE]

Murders this Week: 5
Murders this Year: 72

Tuesday, April 21 [MORE]

Murders this Week: 5
Murders this Year: 67

The man shot to death in the 5800 block of Edgepark Road in Loch Raven on March 26 has been identified as a 23-year-old African-American named Carlos Spence.

Monday, April 13 [MORE]

Murders this Week: 2
Murders this Year: 62

Wednesday, April 8

4:35 p.m. A confidential informant told police that a body could be found inside a vacant dwelling in the 1900 block of Wilkens Avenue in Carrollton Ridge. Inside, they discovered Dominic Baker, a 16-year-old African-American male, who had been shot to death. Baker is the seventh person under 18 murdered this year.

Saturday, April 11 [MORE]

Murders this Week: 8
Murders this Year: 60

Tuesday, March 31

4:48 p.m. Three men were in a car in the 1500 block of West Fayette Street in Franklin Square when another car pulled up. Someone in the second car had a gun and fired into the car the three men were sitting in. All three were shot. A 19-year-old African-American man and a 21-year-old African-American man survived. David Williams, a 20-year-old African-American man, died at an area hospital at 5:20 p.m. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 4
Murders this Year: 52

The man found shot to death on the railroad tracks in Cherry Hill on March 22 has been identified as Davon Saunders, a 26-year-old African-American man. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 5
Murders this Year: 48

Tuesday, March 17

11:05 p.m. Adrian Martise, a 24-year-old African-American man, and Anthony Bailey, a 20-year-old African-American man, were inside a Chinese food carry-out at the corner of Greenmount Avenue and 29th Street near the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. They were making purchases when two people came in and opened fire on them. Both Martise and Bailey were shot numerous times. A 21-year-old African-American man, who was also in the carry-out, was shot in the legs, but managed to run outside. He was taken to an area hospital, where he was treated and released. Martise and Bailey were also taken to a hospital, but died less than an hour later. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 2
Murders this Year: 43

The State's Attorney's Office has ruled the Jan. 11 killing of Shawn Green, a 17-year-old African-American male, self-defense. Green was stabbed in the chest at a bus stop in the 3200 block of the Alameda.

For the second week in a row, there was a fatal police-involved shooting. This is the fifth one in the first two and a half months of the year. In 2006, there were five fatal police-involved shootings for the entire year, up from four in 2005. Police got a call at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 14, that there was a hostage situation at a home in the 500 block of Half Mile Court in Seton Hill just off Martin Luther King Boulevard downtown. Samuel Cosby, a 48-year-old African-American man, had barricaded himself in his home with his 4-year-old granddaughter. He was holding the girl at knife point. Hostage negotiators were called in to speak with Cosby. Three hours later, it was determined that the SWAT team would have to go in. SWAT found Cosby on the third floor holding a large machete to his granddaughter. An officer struggled with Cosby to get the knife and sustained minor injuries. During the struggle, another officer shot Cosby, killing him. The child was unharmed. The officer that shot Cosby is Garfield O'Toole, a member of the SWAT unit who has been on the force for 13 years. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 4
Murders this Year: 42

According to police, the Jan. 11 killing of Shawn Green, a 17-year-old African-American male, was ruled justified by the State's Attorney's Office and removed from the homicide tally. However, the State's Attorney's Office says it has not made a ruling on this case yet. As a result, there is a discrepancy between the number of 2009 homicides recorded by this column and the number counted by the Baltimore Police Department.

The death of Roger Dennis has been added to the homicide rolls. Dennis was shot more than a decade ago. On May 24, 1997, Dennis, an African-American who was 13 years old at the time, was standing in the 1900 block of West North Avenue when a young man rode up on a bicycle, pulled out a gun, and shot the child twice--once in the chest and once in the spine. Dennis died 11 years later on Aug. 1, 2008. He was 25. His death was ruled a result of the 1997 shooting. As of press time, police could not explain why it took nine months for his death to be counted as a homicide. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 2
Murders This Year: 38

Thursday, Feb. 26

2:45 p.m. The building-maintenance supervisor at Carroll Manor Apartments, an apartment complex in the 700 block of Arlington Avenue in Harlem Park that caters to people 55 years and older, received a call from the family of Frederick Archer, one of the complex's residents. The maintenance supervisor entered Archer's apartment and found the 68-year-old African-American man dead. He had been stabbed and possibly beaten. Archer is the fourth person over the age of 50 murdered this year. [MORE]

Murders this Week: 5
Murders this Year: 36

The third fatal police-involved shooting of 2009 happenedon. Feb. 17. On officer, who is referred to in a statement of probable cause as officer McKissick, was on her way to a disorderly call in the 200 block of N. Lakewood Avenue. During her investigation, she came into contact with Joseph Forrest, a 61-year-old African-American man, in the 2600 block of Orleans Street. Forrest allegedly tried to get the officer's gun. While the officer was struggling with Forrest, his nephew (who is also named Joseph Forrest), a 45-year-old African-American man, appeared. The elder Forrest instructed his nephew to get the officer's gun. The nephew stepped on the officer's hand. While struggling with the two men, the original officer and a second officer shot the uncle, killing him. The nephew (whose last name was given as "Forrester" in a statement of probable cause, but was listed as Forrest by the public information office) was arrested.

Monday, Feb. 16 [MORE]

Murders this Week: 5
Murders this Year: 31

Tuesday, Feb. 10

7 a.m. Someone spotted a body floating in the Patapsco River near the Hanover Street bridge and called police. Eric Pendergrass, a 26-year-old African-American man, was pulled out of the water. His death has been ruled a homicide by asphyxiation. According to a U.S. District Court criminal complaint, Pendergrass' girlfriend reported his abduction on Feb. 1 ("What's That Floating in the Water," The News Hole, CityPaper.com, Feb. 12). She told police that she received a call from Pendergrass at 1:30 a.m. that day. He told her to get a bag of money out of the closet and bring it to his mother's house, where she would hand it off to someone named "Darlene." Pendergrass was "abrupt and appeared under duress" on the phone, according to the complaint. His girlfriend followed the instructions, but Pendergrass never returned. [MORE]