A neighbourhood shattered

A police mobile command centre in the neighbourhood where the mass shooting occurred, in the southern neighbourhood of Brooklyn, Baltimore. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

IN videos from a block party on July 1, hundreds of teenagers and young adults are seen dancing in Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighbourhood, singing along to the lyrics of local rappers. As they shout and move their hands through the air, many hold up phones to record the revelry on a hot summer night.

But the videos that emerged from shortly after midnight tell a story of terror and tragedy: teenagers running from gunfire, people falling to the ground, and a mother wailing as she met police officers at the vast crime scene where her daughter had been fatally shot.