A 42-year-old man is in stable condition after a shooting on The Block in Baltimore in the early hours of Sunday morning, police say.
Just before 1:30 a.m., police responded to the 400 block of East Baltimore Street downtown, home to numerous adult entertainment clubs, for a report of shots fired. In the rear of a building, they located the man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his back and upper arm, according to a news release from the Baltimore Police Department.
The Block, which has come under fire from local leaders several times throughout its history, is once again in their crosshairs. This General Assembly session, a group of legislators representing Baltimore — including Senate President Bill Ferguson — proposed a bill that would shutter the clubs on The Block by 10 p.m. It was backed by officials like Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison, who said that unruly crowds outside the clubs, particularly after they close at 2 a.m., were a major drain on police resources.
Club owners have spoken out against the legislation, arguing that it would cripple their businesses. Friday, Ferguson said some of the clubs had reached a compromise with city leaders, through which they would pay for two off-duty Baltimore police officers to patrol the nightlife district three nights a week and promise to have security cameras with footage readily available to officers. But some clubs on the strip said they were not party to such a deal.
