The new chair of the Baltimore County Council and chief of the county’s police force met with residents in Towson on Wednesday night to discuss public safety, with the community searching for answers in the wake of December’s shocking mass shooting.
Data shows county homicides were down in 2024, while other crime rates have remained relatively flat compared with 2023. But a mass shooting in Towson late last year, just blocks away from Babcock Presbyterian Church where Wednesday’s meeting was held, has shaken the community.
County Council Chairman Mike Ertel, the Democrat representing the area where the incident occurred, organized the town hall. Police Chief Robert McCullough and several police captains, lieutenants, a colonel and other personnel were present during the meeting to address community concerns.
McCullough told the church full of residents that his department was continuing to investigate but that he couldn’t reveal details.
“We’ve made significant progress,” he said. McCullough said that in response to the mass shooting, the police department has deployed significant resources in the area. Towson has more police than anywhere else in the county, he said.
Police Capt. Leonard Schroeder said actions taken by the officers who first responded to the scene Dec. 17 “more likely than not led to less loss of life” due to their first-aid efforts, which included administering tourniquets to the victims. During the town hall, those police who responded to the mass shooting arrived and lined up against a wall of the church to applause from the community.
Police also took care to get rid of police tape and other evidence that the area along Loch Raven Boulevard was once a crime scene to quickly restore normalcy to the community, he said.
“Traffic stops and high visibility have been priorities for the Towson precinct,” Schroeder said.
Newly appointed County Executive Kathy Klausmeier called the shooting “shocking, awful, horrible.” She said she was confident the police would find those responsible for the shooting and hold them accountable.
“Things like this are really out of character,” said state Del. Nick Allen, who represents Baltimore County. But he noted that the level of community engagement, as evidenced by the large turnout for the town hall, was in character for the county.
One resident, Shelby Haile, of Loch Raven Village, told The Baltimore Sun she generally feels safe in the neighborhood even after being robbed at gunpoint several years ago. Despite that, she said she felt neighbors looked out for one another.
“It makes me a little, like, unnerved,” she said of the recent mass shooting.
Rohan Raju, of the Fellowship Forest community, came to the town hall to “see what their strategy is to minimize” incidents like the shooting, which killed one and injured nine others.
“Generally I do [feel safe] and I want to keep it that way,” he said.
Raju felt the issues of development and crime were interconnected, believing the Days Inn, which is being redeveloped into affordable housing, should instead become a green space or community center for youth.
Many residents at the town hall complained about feeling unsafe at their local Giant or Weis supermarkets, seeing panhandlers, loitering and graffiti in and around these areas. Several said they felt unsafe from regularly hearing police helicopters and seeing police spotlights.
McCullough explained that the helicopters are usually just patrolling, but their deployment may not be for criminal matters either. Missing persons cases sometimes involve helicopter use, he said.
Ertel encouraged concerned residents to reach out to his office.
Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at rbazos@baltsun.com, 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks.