Murders this Week: 4
Murders this Year: 140

This week a beating from 2007 was ruled a homicide. On Aug. 6 of that year, Contray Davon Merchant, a 26-year-old African-American man, was beaten by a group of men on the 5100 block of Queensberry Avenue near Pimlico Race Course. He suffered severe head trauma and was in a coma for eight months after the beating. On May 17 of this year, he was taken to Maryland General Hospital because he was having difficulty breathing. He was pronounced dead at 3:42 a.m. that day. On Aug. 20, it was determined that his death was the result of the assault he suffered three years ago.

A man who was shot in the early morning of July 11 died of his injuries at an area hospital on Aug. 16, at 2:47 p.m. On the day of the incident, Donald Carter, a 39-year-old African-American man, was found sitting in a black car in the middle of the 800 block of West Franklin Street. He’d been shot several times, while his passenger, also an African-American man, had been shot in the arm and the leg. Both were taken to an area hospital. The passenger survived.

Updated: An assault from Aug. 13 has resulted in another homicide. That evening, Jose Gonzales, a  44-year-old Hispanic man, was sitting with another man on the steps of a house in the 100 block of North Linwood Avenue, just north of Patterson Park, when a teenage girl approached. Arteesha Holt, a 14-year-old African-American girl, allegedly pulled a gun and announced a robbery. When the men resisted, she shot them both, according to police. One survived. Gonzales, who was shot in the head, died Aug. 20 at 5 a.m. in an area hospital. Holt has been charged with first-degree murder.

Saturday, Aug. 21

2:17 a.m. Martin Reyes, a 51-year-old Hispanic man, was beaten to death on the 200 block of North Kenwood, two blocks from his home and about two blocks from the site of the Aug. 13 shooting. Jermaine Holley, a 19-year-old African-American man who lives in Northeast Baltimore, was arrested for the attack. He allegedly beat Reyes with a piece of wood, causing severe head trauma, and left him lying on his back in the street. Medics pronounced Reyes dead on the scene at 2:38 a.m.