Unidentified man dies in shooting on city's west side

A 26-year-old West Baltimore man died of gunshot wounds suffered in a shooting about 11 a.m. yesterday in the 100 block of S. Payson St., police said.

The victim, whose identity police did not release last night, was shot three times in the chest and died hours later at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.

His death brings the city's homicide total for the year to 173. Mayor Martin O'Malley had hoped to reduce the number of homicides in the city - which recorded more than 300 killings the year before he took office in late 1999 - to 175 for the entire year.