Baltimore teen accused of firing into crowd during block party mass shooting

BALTIMORE — A second teenager has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting that left two people dead and 28 others injured during a Baltimore block party earlier this summer, authorities announced Thursday evening.

The teen fired a handgun at a group of partygoers on July 2, according to charging documents, but the papers don’t specify whether anyone was injured by the bullets from his gun. Police said at least three people shot into the crowd, turning the annual neighborhood summer celebration into a scene of terror and bloodshed. Most of the victims were teens and young adults.

Tristan Brian Jackson, 18, was wearing an ankle monitor from an unrelated case in juvenile court when he arrived at the Brooklyn Homes block party and joined the crowd, which grew to several hundred people in the hours leading up to the shooting, according to police.

Detectives said GPS data from his ankle monitor corroborated his location at the party. They said he was also caught on surveillance video firing five rounds at a group of seven people who were fleeing in the opposite direction. It was not immediately clear whether Jackson has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

He has been charged with a litany of counts, including attempted murder and firearms offenses, according to police records. The case was not immediately listed in online court records.

The attempted murder charges come after more than a month of scrutiny of the Baltimore Police Department’s response to the scene.

Residents of south Baltimore’s Brooklyn Homes public housing complex had called the police hours before gunfire broke out, saying the party was getting out of hand and some attendees were armed with guns and knives. But a “catastrophic breakdown” in communication led to inaction from officers until it was too late, officials said at a public hearing following the shooting.